tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-341505492018-11-10T05:15:45.540-05:00New Jewish EducationA collaborative resource for thoughtful (and possibly frustrated) folks
interested in trying to do things just a little better.Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-73259439659677606752018-10-24T15:51:00.000-04:002018-11-09T08:48:12.902-05:00Talking with our children about tragic eventsThis is what I shared with the Religious School community at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/">Temple Emanu-El </a>after the events at Tree of Life Synagogue:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> 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Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/> 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Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style><![endif]--> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dear School Families, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">During Religious School on Sunday and Monday, we did not explicitly raise the tragic events at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh with our students. We know that every child is different, and each family must choose to handle the situation in its own way. Yet, we also know that many of our children have questions and fears that we, as their parents, want to address – not to mention our own, adult concerns. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>I want <span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">to share with you the guidance I gave our faculty, which holds for parents as well:</span> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">If the children bring up the topic, don’t shut it down. Listen attentively to what they have to say -- their concerns and their questions, their thoughts and feelings -- and let that drive the conversation.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Try to answer questions factually without adding unnecessary details. Don’t assume that your questions and concerns are theirs. </span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Reassure the children that Temple Emanu-El is a safe place; we are a sanctuary for all people seeking comfort and support. Here at Emanu-El, there are many adults who are looking out for them and who know exactly what to do to prevent emergencies of all types from happening. A good example is that when there is a fire drill, we all are trained to respond quickly and safely. There are other things that the kids don’t know about that we, the adults, are doing to keep them safe.</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let them know that an important part of what it means to be Jewish is that when we hear about tragedy, we want to respond. That is why Emanu-El is participating in city-wide vigils (both to express our emotions and to demonstrate our solidarity) and why our Philanthropic Committee and Student Council are already talking about what we can do to help the people of the Tree of Life Community. </span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Remind them that there are always many more people trying to be good than to do harm, of all religions, backgrounds, and nationalities. Unfortunately, it is so much easier to be destructive than to build, and bad news always gets the headlines – but remember, although there are some dangerous people in the world, nearly everyone you meet is a kind, generous, loving person like yourself.</span></li></ol><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you are looking for additional guidance for talking with your children, I recommend all of the following excellent resources:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B099UjTql7LndHNBYVpVM3pxZTIwcWtGbDVlM2hGMjlLVGU4/view">Talking to Children About Violence: Tips for Parents and Teachers</a>, National Association of School Psychologists</span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://pjlibrary.org/beyond-books/pjblog/february-2017/how-to-talk-to-children-about-anti-semitism">How to Talk to Children About Anti-Semitism</a>, PJ Library</span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://childmind.org/article/helping-children-cope-frightening-news/">Helping Children Cope With Frightening News</a>, Child Mind Institute</span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/parents/talkingwithkids/news/talking.html">Talking with Kids About News: Strategies for Talking and Listening</a>, PBS</span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://urj.org/blog/2018/10/27/wake-tragedy-resources-coping-after-pittsburgh-synagogue-shootings">A List of Resources for Coping with Tragedy</a>, Union for Reform Judaism </span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, our Parent Association member Zibby Owens published an <a href="https://www.kveller.com/at-a-bat-mitzvah-the-night-of-the-pittsburgh-shootings-celebration-mixed-with-sorrow/">essay on Kveller</a> about going to a bat mitzvah on Saturday night and being reminded of all the good in life, not just this terror. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">With love for our Emanu-El family, </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />Saul</span></div></blockquote>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-7369077463193614692018-03-01T08:28:00.000-05:002018-11-09T08:50:44.401-05:00The Golden Age of Religious School Education<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> 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UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Garamond","serif";} </style><![endif]-->I wrote this article for the March-April 2018 edition of the <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/">Temple Emanu-El </a>Bulletin.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="MsoNormal">The challenges of Jewish education are largely the same as they were more than a century ago, when the first generations of American Jews began attending supplementary schools. Forced by these challenges to be inventive and resourceful, the best educators integrated innovative approaches and cutting-edge practices. And yet, because we are in an era of unprecedented collaboration, I believe we are now in a “Golden Age” for religious schools.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a name='more'></a>American Jews in the 19<sup>th</sup> century often employed private tutors (such as a rabbi or a scholar) to provide private or small-group classes for their children’s (that is to say, their sons’) Jewish education.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a>Sunday School initially was developed for families, including immigrant families, that could not afford to pay both synagogue dues and the salary for a private tutor. By the second half of the 19<sup>th</sup> century, the majority of Reform congregations in the United States ran “Sabbath Schools” that met on Saturday afternoons, Sunday mornings or both. By the beginning of the 20<sup>th</sup>century, however, Sunday schools were attended most often by the children of increasingly affluent synagogue members.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a>And, by the late 1960s, “parents relied mainly or almost entirely on the religious school for the Jewish upbringing of their children.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even today, many schools are, unfortunately, dull places where students spend their days memorizing facts about ancient texts and historical events. Yet, even a century ago a spirit of experimentation and creativity characterized the best supplementary schools. They incorporated drama, music, games and self-paced Hebrew instruction. These programs sought to teach <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">practical skills </span>for leading an engaged Jewish life, to build community among the students and to provide educational experiences for the entire family. As an example, the Jewish Home Institute, established by Hemdah Miller and active throughout the mid-to-late 1920s, developed a series of home-based learning materials, including recipes, stories, craft projects (accompanied by such supplies as modeling clay and cutouts), and phonograph records supplemented with sheet music. One enduring legacy is the song <a href="https://youtu.be/i-KDpWZvWRI"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Dreidl</i>,</a> which remains among the most popular Chanukah songs to this day<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a>(As Cantor Mo Glazman sang with our choir <a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/:%20https:/youtu.be/i-KDpWZvWRI">this past December</a>).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Even a century ago, such programs honored the diverse interests and backgrounds of students and their families. They provided both the means and motivation <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">to create thoughtful, caring members of </span>intergenerational and international Jewish <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">communities. </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Yet,</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">if there ever has been a “Golden Age” for synagogue education, it is right now.</b> A pervasive spirit of cooperation imbues the work of supplementary Jewish education. I see among my fellow educators a sense of shared endeavor and mutual responsibility for the education of the next generation. We are witnessing a blossoming of innovation and collaboration and, consequently, an improvement in the quality of religious schools throughout the nation. Temple Emanu-El is at the center of many of these initiatives, and this is no surprise: As one of the first Reform congregations in the country, we have enormous experience pioneering approaches and sharing our wisdom and resources with others.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">Over the past 10 years, Emanu-El has hosted three “Hebrew Technology Round Tables,” day-long conferences for educators to share best practices for and obstacles to the implementation of online learning. Through these candid conversations, </span>we were able to develop and successfully implement our <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hebrew Enrichment Program</b>, through which our teachers provide weekly, one-on-one tutoring sessions over the internet (included as part of school tuition). Each year, more than two dozen of our students participate in this program.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the summer of 2016, we brought together the leadership from <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">10 congregational schools that have adapted our <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/tefilah"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tefilah</i></b> </a>(Worship) curriculum. Each school varies the specific methods it employs to fit the needs of its institution, but all share an approach that prioritizes close examination of the words of the Hebrew prayers and robust discussions of students’ interpretations of those words. These educators continue to support each other through an active Facebook discussion group where we raise questions and share ideas for specific lessons.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">Our Seventh-Grade <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mitzvah Corps </b>and Eighth-Grade <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Tzedek League</b> have been publicized widely as models for service learning in a Jewish setting. These programs teach Jewish values through direct action and groupwide reflection. Our </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llJLGT1tKtc"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">Tribes</span></b></a><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;"> program, run by our teens for students in third-grade through fifth-grade on Sunday mornings, has set the standard for engaging young adults as Jewish role models and for building </span>friendships that extend beyond the walls of the school<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;">. Over this past winter break, on a ski slope in Colorado, one parent in our school observed his son chatting with an older kid he didn’t recognize. When asked how they knew each other, the boy answered, “We’re on the same Tribe at Sunday School.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Our Religious School is seen as a paradigm for providing flexible scheduling while maintaining the utmost expectations for participation. Because we know our students are as busy as any other New Yorker, they may attend our school either on Sunday mornings or Monday afternoons, and they may switch back and forth as needed. Outside of school hours, we host activities ranging from a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Student Council</b> that decides which organizations will be the beneficiaries of our <a href="http://emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/ed_relig_tzedakah">school <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tzedakah </i>collection</a> to pajama parties for our youngest students, to international travel programs for our teens. We recognize and celebrate our students’ achievements for this “extra” participation by awarding <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/ed_rshonors">Religious School with Honors</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">The time commitment and energy demanded to prepare activities that are engaging, instructive and fun cannot be overstated. Our faculty (both adult and teen) undergo rigorous training and evaluation, and they hold each other accountable to high standards of excellence. Perhaps it is for these reasons that many of our teachers return each year—some of them now teaching the children of students from their classes during the 1960s and ’70s. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">We also play a critical role in training the next generation of educational leadership: I personally teach a mandatory, year-long graduate course in education for all students enrolled in the rabbinical and cantorial programs at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (including three members of Emanu-El’s religious school faculty). And, in partnership with HUC-JIR, I also teach here at Emanu-El a <a href="http://m12.u4g.com/?p=146310">one-semester version of this course</a> for religious school teachers from seven congregations (including another three of our own faculty).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Reform Jewish leaders, and the educational leaders of its best supplementary schools, always have predicated our efforts on simultaneously respecting and challenging established ways of doing things. At Emanu-El, we call ourselves the “Department of Lifelong Learning” because we know that Jewish education doesn’t start and stop with your time in a religious school. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">No matter what your age, I hope you will challenge yourself to try something new or to recommit to keeping Jewish traditions alive. In the coming weeks, we would be delighted to see you at our <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Purim Shpiel and Carnival</b> on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">March 4</b>, our <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Elsie Adler Holocaust Memorial Program</b> on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">April 8 and 9</b>, or our Confirmation Ceremony as part of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Congregational Shavuot Services</b> on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">May 20</b>. Come help us meet the challenge of building an intergenerational community among our family of families.</div></blockquote><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10.0pt;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a>Richman, Julia. (1900).&nbsp;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=IlopAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA563&amp;lpg=PA563&amp;dq=the+jewish+sunday+school+movement+in+the+United+States&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=tKv86899Pm&amp;sig=3n4JgTEmLWt__O95tyuL90ormjo&amp;hl=en&amp;ei=wpKmSoikIs6y8QawxcHmCA&amp;sa=X&amp;oi=book_result&amp;ct=result&amp;resnum=8#v=onepage&amp;q=the%20jewish%20sunday%20school%20movement%20in%20the%20United%20States&amp;f=false">“The Jewish Sunday School Movement in the United States.”</a> Abrahams, Israel and Claude Goldsmid Montefiore., eds.&nbsp;<i>The Jewish Quarterly Review. Vol. 12</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. No. 48, July 1900</i>. 563-601. New York: MacMillan Company, 573-592.</div></div><div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10.0pt;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a>Kaplan, Mordecai M. and Bernard Cronson. (1949). “Report of Committee on Jewish Education of The Kehillah (Jewish Community) Presented at its First Annual Convention, New York, February 27, 1910.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of Jewish Education,</i> Vol. 20, No. 3:113-116. Network for Research in Jewish Education.</div></div><div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10.0pt;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a>Sklare, Marshall, Joseph Greenblum and Benjamin B. Ringer. (1969). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Not Quite at Home: How an American Jewish Community Lives With Itself and Its Neighbors. </i>New York: Institute of Human Relations Press</div></div><div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;"><div class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=34150549#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: &quot;garamond&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10.0pt;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a>Krasner, Jonathan B. (2011). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Benderly Boys &amp; American Jewish Education</i>. Lebanon, NH: Brandeis University Press. 95, 231-235, 245. </div></div></div>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-65569285059155612712017-09-18T08:38:00.000-04:002018-11-09T08:51:06.035-05:00Where have all the Teachers Gone? A Collaborative Community ResponseThis article about the course I will be teaching this semester, authored by <a href="http://huc.edu/directory/evie-rotstein">Dr. Evie Levy Rotstein</a>, appeared in <a href="http://www.ejewishphilanthropy.com/">eJewishPhilanthropy</a> on <a href="https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/where-have-all-the-teachers-gone-a-collaborative-community-response/">September 14, 2017</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Each year the challenge seems to grow. Jewish educators are frantically searching for qualified teachers to fill open positions in their religious schools. Research for many years has indicated that there is a shortage of well-trained teachers in Jewish settings, exacerbated by the challenge of retaining strong teachers for these part-time positions. (Westheimer, 2007). This past summer, though, the problem was particularly striking: I received more requests than ever for graduate students to fill multiple empty positions in the New York metropolitan area. Is this problem intractable, or can something be done? </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Last winter, a group of seasoned NYC educators that form a peer network group hosted by the Jewish Education Project in Manhattan began to explore this very issue. They discussed how they might collaborate to offer high level professional learning to encourage current religious school teachers to become teacher leaders. One of the educators, Saul Kaiserman, teaches our “Laboratory in Teaching in Learning” course to rabbinic, cantorial and Masters in Religious Education students at HUC-JIR New York School of Education. What would happen if these educators could offer their faculty members such a course for graduate credit at a highly subsidized tuition fee? What if the congregations themselves paid for the course and then offered the teachers a salary bonus upon the completion of the course? Might avocational teachers begin to consider a career in Jewish education? There was significant back and forth as the group hammered out what they would want in such a course, whether their teachers would realistically attend such a course, how many transferable credits it would be, and ultimately if the finances would be feasible. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">And behold a strategy for change was born. HUC-JIR made the bold decision to offer students enrollment at an incredibly subsidized rate, similar in cost to the introductory course for the Executive Master’s Program. The professor offered to teach the course gratis, Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York agreed to host the course, and all of the congregations were willing to provide the funding for the tuition. At the time of writing, teachers representing congregations across NYC have applied for a spot in this course </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">This is a story of community collaboration and the desire to address the challenges of the teacher shortage and retention. We as leaders in the field of Jewish education must continue to find ways to recognize and validate the fact that our teachers need to continue their own growth and learning to keep them from leaving the field. We know from the data, that teachers who do not participate in ongoing professional development are less effective in the classroom and less likely to meet the emerging needs of students, administrators, and the field of Jewish education. Our hope is that this course may be the catalyst for teachers to seek a graduate degree and ultimately a full time career in Jewish education. We also need to think about the future of Jewish education leadership.&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">If you are interested in learning more about the course please <a href="http://huc.edu/application-teaching-and-learning-soe-400">follow this link</a> or contact Dr. Evie Rotstein at erotstein@huc.edu.</blockquote><br /><br />Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-45362665584960510732016-11-16T15:51:00.001-05:002016-11-17T10:45:55.914-05:00Talking with our Students about the ElectionI want to share with you the email that I sent to our school faculty at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/">Temple Emanu-El</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dear School Faculty, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Several of you have spoken this week with either Jackie or me about the outcome of our presidential election. You have expressed a particular challenge it poses to us as Jewish educators. The question I’m hearing is something along the lines of, “how can we teach our children what it means to be a good and morally righteous leader, if I think the president-elect is a terrible role model?” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Clearly, that is not how all of our congregants, or faculty, or even a great many of those who voted in this election feel. Yet, we do know that throughout his campaign, Donald Trump used hurtful language in an unprecedented fashion, with rhetoric that was explicitly racist, misogynistic, and just plan mean-spirited. How do we explain to our students that it is unacceptable for them to use such language, if our president does?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As Jews, we believe the Torah can be a guide <span style="color: #1f497d;">for </span>our behavior. When we study the stories of our ancestors, we see how their actions serve as examples for us today. And yet, even our greatest leaders were imperfect. Side by-side with their hospitality, compassion, and righteousness we find selfishness, arrogance, and even cruelty. In truth, from their stories we not only learn what to do, but also what NOT to do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is our responsibility to help our students (and their parents) decide for themselves which values lead to a loving, just and peaceful world and then together build a community in which they can act upon those values -- even when they are in opposition to those values espoused by our leaders. We need to be able to stand up to oppression wherever we encounter it. And most importantly, we need our school to be a place of sanctuary for all of our students and families, in which all feel safe to be wholly themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While we always encourage those who have made mistakes to seek forgiveness and improve upon their past actions, we should not excuse or minimize bad behavior, no matter how prestigious the person engaging in it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As always, both Jackie and I make it our top priority to help you think about your teaching and your individual students. Please don’t be shy about reaching out to us to think an issue through – on this topic, or for any other reason. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We are strong, getting stronger, getting strength from each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Saul</span></span></div></blockquote>For more reading on this topic, I recommend the op-ed by Emily Bazelon in today's New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/opinion/bullying-in-the-age-of-trump.html">Bullying in the Age of Trump</a>. And here is a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VprheADDYQJQclPhUUKjAmY0OuTXOFQpwe9p5myH-N0/edit?ts=582a3700">great set of resources</a> from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bordercrossers.org/">Border Crossers</a>.Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-17195017572621978092016-11-07T09:30:00.000-05:002016-11-16T18:56:11.591-05:00Moving Past Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Here's something that I wrote back in 2008, together with Rachel Brumberg, Danny Mishkin, and David Wolkin for the "<a href="http://www.leader-institute.org/mentor_voice_archive.html">Mentor's Voice</a>" column of the (now defunct) <a href="http://www.leader-institute.org/">Leadership Institute for Congregational Educators</a>.&nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><div class="bodytext" style="margin-left: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anyone who has been involved in a change initiative has probably encountered the phrase “low hanging fruit,” those targets or goals which are easily achievable and which do not require a lot of effort. There are any number of reasons why it is advantageous to focus change efforts on low hanging fruit at the outset.&nbsp; But what then?&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="bodytext" style="margin-left: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York, in a series of departmental retreats, we identified new challenges that arise as low-hanging fruit is picked, and how we might respond to those challenges.&nbsp; Here is a summary of the thoughts of our Department of Lifelong Learning full-time staff:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. What do we mean by “low-hanging fruit?”</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li>Things that require little work and can be done easily</li><li>Things that can be successful more quickly (even if a lot of work)</li><li>Things for which it is obvious what success would look like</li><li>Things that may not require systemic change – can stand alone, can be handled departmentally and autonomously, are perhaps less threatening or non-threatening</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Why focus on low-hanging fruit at the start?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;"></div><ul><li>To build confidence and trust in leadership &amp; change process though early successes</li><li>To respond to the hunger for change and for deliverables – start with a bang!</li><li>To create buy-in and to build trust among stakeholders – people want to see results!</li><li>To build the morale of the team</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. What new challenges arise as low-hanging fruit is picked?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When the low hanging fruit is used up – &nbsp;what then?&nbsp; How will we know what to tackle next?&nbsp; How can we prepare for future challenges?&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;"></div><ul><li>There is the possibility of addressing symptoms but not causes. As a result, the changes we make may only be superficial and the solutions may only work for a limited duration.&nbsp;</li><li>Any new interventions or program changes require systems, structures, and staffing that must be coordinated, managed, and supervised -- they don’t run themselves!&nbsp; Managing the increased workload resulting from new initiatives, and developing new systems and procedures, can become so time consuming that no further initiatives can be developed.</li><li>We don’t necessarily learn the skills (or help others learn the skills) that will enable us to tackle more challenging problems or projects.</li><li>Because this work doesn’t require people to get out of their comfort zones, it does not require us to create an environment in which conflict and debate is effectively managed and resolved.</li><li>The expectation can be developed that we will continue making positive change at the same pace, even though further changes would be more challenging to institute.</li><li>If all the work done is done internally and departmentally, it does not build a collaborative environment or shared sense of accountability.&nbsp; Therefore, changes may not develop the deep roots that enable them to endure beyond the efforts of the change-makers.</li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. What should we do to respond to these challenges?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-indent: -.25in;"></div><ul><li>Be willing to <u style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -0.25in;">shake the tree</u><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -0.25in;">!&nbsp; Take risks!</span></li><li><u style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -0.25in;">Climb the tree</u><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -0.25in;">: Think strategically and long-term. Set priorities that will have deep impact and stick to them.&nbsp; Build consensus and shared accountability around these priorities. Be strong and resolute in face of opposition. Learn to say “no” by sticking to our priorities.</span></li><li>Focus on infrastructure and build systems. &nbsp;Use what we have learned so far to develop procedures and routines to handle day-to-day tasks – especially high urgency, low importance and low priority items.</li><li>Broaden and deepen our relationships with members of the community (including families, faculty, and staff in other departments).&nbsp; Provide volunteers with real responsibilities, an active voice, and the ability to directly impact the program. Continue to build and deepen buy-in among our stakeholders, not merely as lip service, but because we see their participation as critical to the long-term success of the endeavor.</li><li>Clarify our expectations (for participation, achievement, and so on) and publicize them widely.&nbsp; Where our language is vague, clarify what we really mean.&nbsp; Establish a culture of commitment and responsibility.</li><li>Think about our legacy – what do we want things to look like once we are gone, and how can we make our changes stick?</li></ul><br />Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-82945921988016400382016-11-05T13:57:00.002-04:002016-11-05T14:09:31.415-04:00Aspiring to "Failure" (from the Jewish Futures Conference, 2015)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With the next <a href="http://jewishfutures.org/">Jewish Futures Conference</a> just around the corner, I realized I had never posted this video of my presentation from the <a href="http://jewishfutures.org/blog/jewish-futures-conference-2015-radical-empathy">2015 Conference</a>.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The theme was "radical empathy," and my presentation, "Failure," was on my experience as a teacher at the <a href="https://www.sssm.org/">Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan</a>.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gJ6IUN12lv4/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gJ6IUN12lv4?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br />Here's the punch-line: "If I'm a better teacher now, it's because what I've learned is that being a great teacher...isn't about being a great teacher. It's about helping the kids to be great students."Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-16221392809104880512016-02-24T17:09:00.000-05:002016-02-24T17:09:29.431-05:00How do we know when Jewish education is successful?For the past several years, I have been writing about the philosophy underlying my work in congregational education in annual cover-articles for the Temple Emanu-El bulletin. This is what I wrote for Vol. 88, No. 5. As always, I'd love your feedback and thoughts in the comments below.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>When Rabbi Mordechai died, his son, Rabbi Noah, took his place as leader. Many of his followers found that in several matters he did not act as his father had, and they asked him about it. “I act,” he said, “Exactly as my father did. He never imitated others, and neither do I!” — </i>Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim&nbsp;</blockquote>At <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/school">Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York</a>, we employ two complementary approaches to engage our students in their cultural heritage: <b><i>instruction </i></b>and <b><i>enculturation</i></b>. While we often emphasize <b><i>instruction </i></b>— deliberate and systematic skill building, training and sharing of knowledge — equally important is <b><i>enculturation </i></b>— providing our students with a sense of belonging within our community. Our program must show our students what it means to behave as a member of our synagogue and of our people. These values are not only taught explicitly; they also are embodied in our architecture, our music, how we dress, how we treat one another and many other subtle ways.<br /><br />As adults, we want our synagogue’s youngest members to feel a part of the same vibrant community that is such an important part of our lives. The distinctive elements that distinguish Jewish culture must motivate them to stay engaged with Jewish life. The values that guide us are ones that we hope to share with our children: for example, to be generous in our philanthropy, curious and inquisitive in our study, active in our service to the community at large, and moved by the words of prayer.<br /><br />These values are reflected in our commitment as adults, respectively, to the Philanthropic Committee, to the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center, to <i>tikkun olam</i> and to our sanctuary worship. Similarly, the education of our children embodies these values in our weekly collection of <i>tzedakah</i>, our Religious School classes, Mitzvah Corps and other service-oriented programs, and in our <i>tefilah </i>and Shabbat Kodesh services. All of these activities, and many more like them, seek to reinforce to our children the things that truly matter to us as adults. The Jewish lifestyle that we model is just as important as the content of the lesson.<br /><br />For Reform Jews, however, authenticity can’t be judged by how much our opinions or actions resemble those of the people who came before us. Core to the ideology of our movement is that we not merely replicate the past but that we also renew our rituals and traditions to make them meaningful and relevant to the present generation. We therefore face a particular challenge: Because effective teaching can’t be measured by how much our students believe and behave like their parents and grandparents, how do we know when our efforts are successful?<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Further complicating the picture is the fact that our parent body is composed of a beautiful and complex conglomeration of people of varied geographic origins and native languages, religious backgrounds and family structures, among many other differences. In previous issues of this bulletin, I have argued that, to respond to this dilemma, the school curriculum must be a collaborative effort between our faculty, clergy and parents. We must create a course of study that reflects the many ways in which we ourselves have been inspired — one that enables our students to make sense of their multifaceted inheritance, to relate it to their own lives, and to join together as a community with others who see the synagogue as their home. We need to think deeply about what it means to live a meaningful Jewish life and then participate side-by-side with those who have reached different (and potentially not entirely compatible) conclusions. Our task is not to convince one another to try to fit into our way of doing things but to build a sense of unity while celebrating our differences.<br /><br />Amidst our diversity, we must acknowledge that there is no single thing as a Jewish “culture” that can be known or learned, for our culture is always in a constant state of flux, being made and remade anew. As Reform Jews, we recognize that for Jewish values and practices to be sustainable over time, they must remain relevant and meaningful to each new generation. Cultural continuity derives not only from its stability but also from its adaptability. As members of a Jewish community, we constantly are redefining the boundaries of what we recognize as acceptable and appropriate. We are like the followers of Rabbi Noah, who continued to call him “rabbi,” despite the ways his practices differed from those of his father.<br /><br />If we wish for our children to remain engaged by Jewish life, then we must both guide them with the varied perspectives of the adult members of the community and support them in developing new ways of making their Jewish experiences meaningful. At the same time, if we wish for their innovations to affect others, then they must learn how to explain effectively how they are grounded in Jewish tradition. And, we must teach them how to articulate their beliefs in a sophisticated way that is comprehensible to the adult community as identifiably Jewish.<br /><br />The audacity that Reform Jewish synagogue life demands from us is to recognize ourselves as intrinsically bound with those with whom we disagree, even when they are our own children. This only can work, however, when we all feel responsible for the perpetuation of the community. In large part, our community survives because we would rather be together with one another, despite the compromises this requires of us. But our community only thrives when we obligate ourselves to take responsibility for its upkeep and health.<br /><br />For this reason, we cultivate from an early age the future leadership of the congregation and, even more ambitiously, of our people. In the Religious School, the members of our student council decide who will be the beneficiaries of our <i>tzedakah </i>collection. Teens in all of our high school-aged programs have genuine leadership obligations, whether as members of the youth group board, the Teen Philanthropic or Teen Benefit committees, or as assistant teachers in the Religious School on the A-TEEM. In providing our students with the tools and the responsibility to shape their synagogue experience, we demonstrate to them how valuable a part of the community they are. We know that our educational efforts are successful when our children choose to take on that responsibility and when they share with us the aspiration to pass it along to future generations.Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-42365906017485532562015-05-29T09:52:00.000-04:002015-05-29T10:52:46.369-04:00A Joke with a Yiddish Punchline<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This past March, the <a href="http://emanuelskirballnyc.org/">Emanu-El Skirball Center</a> hosted a book release party for "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Burns-Kotsk-Hasidism-Kingdom/dp/0814338135">A Fire Burns in Kotsk</a>," a translation by Jonathan Boyarin of <i>Pshishke in Kotzk</i>, written in Yiddish by my grandfather, Menashe Unger.&nbsp;My brother Mark (who is named for my zeidi) and I told stories of his life, and Jonathan read excerpts from the book. In this video, from the Q&amp;A, I share one of his jokes.&nbsp;</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">&nbsp;<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KgN0WmoGhsE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KgN0WmoGhsE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you enjoyed this, go ahead and watch the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz6SBYLGiDg">full video of the event</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Let me add, my zeidi wasn't the only one to tell jokes in English with Yiddish punchlines. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmGoSSNLACc">Here's another</a> (perhaps funnier?) one.</div><br />Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-77812358664164474612015-03-15T10:00:00.000-04:002015-03-16T18:13:49.050-04:00Studying our history to build a Jewish futureIn May of 2014, I posted a <a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-statement-of-jewish-educational.html">personal vision statement for Jewish education</a>. Previously, I offered two examples of this vision how we have implemented these ideas in our work at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/school">Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York</a>: In our curricula for <a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2014/06/tzedakah-building-culture-of-equity.html"><i><b>tzedakah</b></i></a> (which I will here translate loosely as "social justice") and <a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2014/06/tefilah-empowering-prayer-communities.html"><i><b>tefilah</b></i></a>&nbsp;("prayer"). This week, I wish to share with you a little of how we have organized our history curriculum for grades 3-6. In so doing, I want to once again emphasize that collaboration is the cornerstone of our methodology, and I am reporting on the intersection between my philosophy and the work we do, not taking credit for our achievements. As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, your feedback, and your critique.<br /><br />The most important thing you can do for your children, <a href="http://www.greatertalent.com/speaker-news/bruce-feiler-the-new-york-times-the-stories-that-bind-us/">writes</a> New York Times columnist Bruce Feiler, is to tell them true stories about your own family. The more children know about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem, and the greater their resilience in the face of stress. By sharing our childhood memories and the stories of our parents and grandparents, we teach our children that they are part of something larger than themselves, something intergenerational and ongoing. As our children discover that they, too, can be story-tellers, they learn how to make sense of the confusing and sometimes unpredictable world around them. <br /><br />Stories of redemption -- family narratives that tell of overcoming setbacks and recovering from failures -- are the most beneficial, according to psychologist <a href="http://www.redemptiveself.northwestern.edu/mcadams/">Dan McAdams</a>. We help our children to be courageous in the face of adversity when we let them know that although we have had both good and bad times, we have always persevered. Telling stories about the times when we endured hardship without losing hope gives our children confidence in themselves and their capacity to succeed. Further, McAdams’ research shows that those who have both this sense of personal agency as well as intimate, caring relationships are most likely to demonstrate a concern for and commitment to promoting the well-being of future generations. <br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a>At Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York, our religious school history curriculum asks our students to see themselves as part of a great Jewish family whose origins stretch back thousands of years. We call ourselves “b’nai Yisrael,” the children of Israel, the great-great-great-great…grandchildren of Jacob and Rebecca. When our third and fourth graders study the Bible, they learn of the challenges faced by their ancestors and the decisions they made to respond to them, their triumphs along with their mistakes and missed opportunities. We explore the values and beliefs that shaped their actions, and think about whether or not we would make similar decisions ourselves. <br /><br />I know some of you may be saying to yourselves, but wait, the Bible stories aren’t actually, true, they didn’t really happen. Those may be good stories, but they are just stories. Well, as I’ve gotten older, and started telling stories of my family to my own children, I’ve come to believe that there really isn’t so much difference between those stories of Jacob and Rebecca and those I tell my kids. How well do I really remember that story that my mother told me about my great-grandfather? Did it really happen the way I’m telling it? How much of it am I just making up? Actually, even the stories I tell my children from my own childhood aren’t entirely accurate, shaped as they are by failures in memory and a fair bit of prudent self-censorship. If I extrapolate the process back seventy generations, no doubt there’s been a fair bit of creativity involved in the story telling, but it doesn’t really matter. The point is, here’s a story about your great-great-great…grandparents, that we believe is worth telling again. <br /><br />In the fifth grade, we explore the amazing journey of the Jewish people from ancient times to the modern era. We follow the ups and downs of the Jewish people, learning how our ancestors continually re-invented themselves and our religion in the face of ever-changing circumstances. We see how Judaism was reformed after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, from a religion primarily centered on sacrificial worship, to one of ideas and literature. We contemplate key moments and turning points in our people’s story, not only the peaks of achievement and success, but also the dark times, such as the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. We ask, how is it that Jews and Judaism have continued to thrive over all these centuries? How have we adapted to changing circumstances and simultaneously maintained a sense of unity and peoplehood -- despite our diversity? <br /><br />Our sixth grade curriculum takes a close look at how three dynamics of the last century have shaped Jewish identity and set the parameters for Judaism in the 21st century. First, our students investigate why the United States became the largest Jewish population in the world. Then, we explore the rise of Nazism in Europe, acknowledging with honesty not merely the terrible crimes committed against humanity but more importantly the stories of courage and resistance that enabled the Jewish people to triumph in the face of evil. Finally, we study how the modern state of Israel came into being and what it means for both a diverse population and for Jews around the world to call it home. <br /><br />For most of our history, Jews have lived under the authority of those with different beliefs and values than our own. We learned to flourish under constantly changing circumstances, and this adaptability has prepared us well for an uncertain future. We learned to be collaborators, innovators, and iconoclasts, scientists who challenge long-held assumptions and dreamers who create worlds of imagination. By seeing the stories of those who came before us as our own, by identifying as part of a supportive collective with a strong sense of community, our children learn that they too can and will make a difference. At the same time it is because we share a common set of stories that we have remained a cohesive, international people, even amidst our diverse ways of living as Jews. <br /><br />Reform Judaism is about transformation: Personal, communal, and global. We seek to make ourselves into better people and the world into a better place. When we teach our children that we have a heritage both of glorious achievements and of thriving despite adversity, they learn that they, too, can grow up to be confident, capable and caring Jewish adults. Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-10151291108712166372014-10-13T10:05:00.000-04:002014-10-15T10:08:12.501-04:00From "Repentance" to "Recovery" - a rare NYC performance of Freedom SongMy friends,<br /><br />The performance of<a href="http://www.beittshuvah.org/music-and-arts/freedom-song/"> Freedom Song</a> that we’re hosting this Sunday at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/">Emanu-El</a> rises to such a high level, in my estimation, that I feel I need to share it with as many people as I can – and especially, to my friends who are parents of teens, or who work with teens. <br /><br />I’m pasting the email I sent to the Emanu-El community below. If you are unfamiliar with the work of <a href="http://www.beittshuvah.org/">Beit T’Shuvah</a>, I think you will be amazed to learn about it. Please help me spread the word about this program, and perhaps I will even see you (and your family?) there. Tickets can be purchased on-line at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/freedomsong">www.emanuelnyc.org/freedomsong</a>. Further, a private session just for educators and youth workers will be held at 3pm; for details email me at <a href="mailto:lifelonglearning@emanuelnyc.org">lifelonglearning@emanuelnyc.org</a>.<br /><br />With love,<br />Saul <br /><blockquote>We went to teen high holiday services, we told the <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/escapegoat">eScapegoat</a> about the things we did wrong...what now? <br /><br />As I am now in my eighth year at Emanu-El, I have for the first time in my professional career seen the students I met as children grow to be teens and young adults. I couldn't be prouder of the responsible and capable people that you have become and are becoming. Further, I am inspired by the caring and thoughtful parents in this community as I think about how I am striving to raise my own (still little) children.<br /><br />And, as someone who grew up in NYC, I am very aware of the kinds of challenges with which we teens, young adults, and parents struggle. There is a lot of pressure to succeed and to fit in, and it frankly doesn't get any easier as you get older, it just changes shape.<br /><br />Which is why it was so important to me, when I first learned of the work of Beit T'Shuvah and their musical Freedom Song that we bring it from Los Angeles to New York City. Beit T'Shuvah is a residential treatment center that approaches addiction and other self-destructive behaviors through Jewish wisdom. <a href="http://www.beittshuvah.org/music-and-arts/freedom-song/">Freedom Song</a>, written by residents in recovery, parallels a Passover Seder, with its message of liberation from oppression and internal bondage, with a 12-step meeting. Why? Because, as their Rabbi Mark Borovitz, writes:<br /><br />"Addiction can happen in every family, no matter what religion they practice and despite any facade of normalcy. If you look at all the things we're addicted to, it's not just drugs, alcohol and gambling - it's a way of living that's become so ingrained in people. We're living in a society where we've forgotten what's important about being Jewish, about what we've brought to the world."<br /><br /><b>Freedom Song will be performed live on-stage here at Emanu-El on Sunday, October 19th. </b>Doors are at 5pm and the performance at 5:30pm, followed by a talk-back with the cast and then breakout discussion groups led by the performers and our educators. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased through our website, <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/freedomsong">www.emanuelnyc.org/freedomsong</a>. I hope you will be able to join me. This event, run in partnership with the <a href="http://emanuelskirballnyc.org/">Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center</a>, is open to the general public - so please tell your friends!<br /><br /></blockquote>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0Temple Emanu-El, 1 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065, USA40.768019 -73.9696926000000315.245984500000002 -115.27828660000003 66.2900535 -32.661098600000031tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-53704225993209995352014-09-23T17:01:00.000-04:002014-09-23T17:01:46.105-04:00Why do we bless our bread? (Part IV)Tomorrow evening we enter into the sabbatical or&nbsp;<a href="http://hazon.org/shmita-project/overview/">shmita year</a>, and so once again I share with you a section from my master's thesis&nbsp;on&nbsp;<b><i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i></b>, the grace after meals. In my three previous posts, I discussed the significance of <a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-do-we-bless-our-bread.html">sanctifying the act of eating</a>, how saying this blessings can help us think about <a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-do-we-bless-our-bread-part-ii.html">proper nutrition</a>&nbsp;and a healthy diet, and how we should always relate to our <a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2014/09/why-do-we-bless-our-bread-part-iii.html#more">food as a Divine gift</a>.<br /><br />This week, as is only fitting in the days after the world's largest <a href="http://www.jewishclimatecampaign.org/">climate-change protest</a> here in NYC, I discuss how saying this blessings can help us to confront our increased alienation from the sources of our food.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lookstein.org/resources/birkat_hamazon.pdf">The thesis in its entirety</a>&nbsp;can be found online at the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i> is an opportunity to examine where our food comes from, how it is grown and raised, how it is packaged and transported to us, and how it is prepared. In the modern era, most city-dwellers have lost touch with the sources of origin of their food. This is evident in the description of the world in Goldberger’s <u>How to Thank HaShem for Food</u>: “The earth is the most ancient and the most modern food-factory which was created and is constantly maintained by the Master of the Universe” (p. 21). We have become so alienated from the processes of farming and harvesting that in order to provide an analogy that makes sense to the contemporary reader, Goldberger describes the workings of the world in terms of a factory, the strongest symbol of industrialization and the human domination of the planet one could find!<br /><br />Arthur Waskow analyzes the problem, asking whether “in our own time of earthquake both in the world and for the Jewish people . . . we need to rethink how to make food sacred as deeply as our ancestors did? For them, food was no longer what they grew in a small land by dint of their own labors, but what came to them by ship and camel train. For us, food has more and more become what is manufactured, not just grown: It comes from crossbred and genetically engineered plants and animals; it comes with inserted vitamins; it comes heavily packaged, precooked, frozen, irradiated, invented” (p. 68). Dr. Steven M. Brown asserts the value that <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon </i>can have in responding to this situation, for each time we say a blessing we acknowledge God and the chain of events (human or otherwise) that enabled us to have the gift of food in front of us.<br /><br />Even when the Israelites experienced the miracle of manna falling from the sky, they still were obligated to collect it every morning, for it would rot if kept overnight (Exodus 16:21). The lesson here seems to be that our sustenance is the result of a partnership between God and human beings. Food is a miracle, but human effort plays a critical role in planting, raising, harvesting, and preparing the food we eat. Ultimately, God is the source of all of our nourishment, but we must also be aware of the humans (such as the farmers, the truckers, and the cooks) which brought the food to our mouths.</blockquote><u>References</u><br /><blockquote><ul>Goldberger, Moshe. <u>How to thank Hashem for Food: Lessons from Birkas Ha-Mazon.</u> New York: Gross Books, 1988.</ul><ul>Waskow, Arthur. <u>Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life.</u> New York: William Morrow and Company, 1995.</ul></blockquote>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-63071096330927205942014-09-16T11:37:00.000-04:002014-09-16T11:37:51.432-04:00Why do we bless our bread? (Part III)Before I share with you this third gleaning from my master's thesis, I want to mention that my brilliant (and pedantic) friend <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/ori-weisberg/">Ori </a>correctly observes that the title of this series is poorly worded, as we do not actually bless our bread. Rather, when we say a blessing we are blessing God, or rather, we are blessing God's ineffable name.<br /><br />This is, of course, a critical difference. If you arrive late to Shabbat dinner, you are still required to make the blessings over the challah before you start eating. This is because, when we say a blessing over food, the food itself is in no way changed. What was previously an ordinary piece of bread is not made sacred (as is, for example, believed by many Christians to be the case for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist">communion wafer</a>). Rather, it is our relationship to our food that is altered and made sacred, as is described in more detail in this excerpt. <a href="http://www.lookstein.org/resources/birkat_hamazon.pdf">My thesis in its entirety</a> can be found online at the <a href="http://www.lookstein.org/">Lookstein Center</a> for Jewish Education. The full text of this section is after the jump.<br /><blockquote>According to tradition, <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i> was instituted by Moses at the time when the manna miraculously descended to feed the Israelites during their travels in the Sinai desert (Talmud Berachot 48b). Elie Munk, quoting S. R. Hirsch, writes that by connecting <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i> to the manna, the rabbis teach us that “every piece of bread eaten now is as much a gift from God as the manna was.” (1954, p. 211). Goldberger, drawing from Talmud Pesachim 118a, asserts that the process by which God “causes a seed to transform earth into food [is] as spectacular as the miracle of the splitting of the sea” (1988, p. 5). <br /><br />The point of each of these statements is that food is always gift from God, a gift which cannot be taken for granted. The provision of food is a daily miracle, whether it is effortlessly picked from the trees (as in the Garden of Eden) or reaped from the earth through great effort (after leaving the Garden). “The message appears rather clear: When we thank God for giving us food, we are recognizing that there is no intrinsic difference between the manna and the livelihood one wrests from the earth through sweat and hard toil; both are gifts from heaven” (1984, p. 182). <br /><br />This connection is also made in the blessing said prior to eating bread, “<i>Ha-Motzi</i>.” This blessing thanks God “who brings forth bread from the land.” Bread – not wheat, which would be more technically accurate – to affirm God’s centrality to the entire process of making bread, from the sprouting of the grain to its baking in the oven. As Evelyn Garfiel puts it, “finding his daily bread never ceases to be a <i>Nes </i>[miracle] even to the farmer who toils so hard to produce the grain, for he recognizes its ultimate source to be God’s loving care for all His [<i>sic</i>] creatures. It is God ‘Who brings forth [the] bread from the earth’” (1958, p. 122).<br /><a name='more'></a><br />In the Talmud, the rabbis emphasize that not only bread is a gift from God, but all food. Although <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i> is the only blessing commanded by the Torah (Deut. 8:10), based upon the statement from Psalms “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” (24:1) the rabbis nevertheless saw it as an obligation to acknowledge that all the fruits of the earth are a gift from God. Therefore, they “instituted the practice of reciting a benediction when partaking of any of them” (Klein 1972, p. 42). There are specific blessings prior to a meal based on several general categories: bread, all other grain-products, things grown on trees, things grown in the ground, wine, and all other edible substances.<br /><br />The rabbis saw such blessings as not just a nice way of showing appreciation to God, but a true obligation (although, as they are not Biblically ordained, not technically as <i>mitzvot</i>). In Talmud Berachot 35a we read that “Our rabbis taught: It is forbidden to a person to enjoy anything of this world without a benediction, and if anyone enjoys anything of this world without a benediction, that person commits sacrilege.” In the next passage, this notion is compared with “making personal use of things consecrated to heaven.” Here, the words “sacrilege” (“<i>ma’al</i>”) and “consecrated to heaven” (“<i>mikadshei shamayim</i>”) are reflective of the language of the Temple service, underscoring that if one ate food without reciting a blessing, it is as if one stole the sacrifice off of the altar of the Temple. <br /><br />The idea that all of the Earth belongs to God, and that humans are merely its caretakers, is reflected in a wide range of Jewish laws, many of which are Biblically based. While the Temple was standing, Israelites were required to set aside the firstborn of all cattle, sheep, and goats, the early fruit from a young tree, the first barley and other foods at each season, and even part of all bread (the “<i>challah</i>”) made for the benefit of the priests or for sacrifice at the Temple to God, “as if to pay ‘rent’ to the owner” (Waskow 1995, p. 41). Only by setting aside these consecrated offerings was it permissible for one to make use of the remainder of the crop or the herd. <br /><br />Human beings, in the Biblical view, did not have absolute authority over the use of the land or its products. Every seven years, no new planting or cultivation of the land could be done, to allow the Earth to rest (Ex. 23:11). During this “<i>shmittah</i>” or “Sabbatical” year, “any fruits or vegetations that grew by themselves . . . became <i>hefker</i>, i.e. public property, free for consumption by man and beast alike. The owner of a field was not permitted to store up in his home large amounts of produce, because this would deprive the poor of their sustenance. He was permitted to retain only enough fruits and vegetables for his own normal needs” (Chill 1974, p.109). Individuals were required to trust in God’s providence throughout the Sabbatical year, not in their own actions.<br /><br />According to the understanding of both the Bible and the rabbinic commentators, all of the world is the property of God. Use of the land, and any food that could be taken from it, are Divine gifts. After the destruction of the Temple, by the time of the writing of the Mishnah at the end of the second century, “the rituals that permitted a person to consume the foods of the earth were not the sacrifices of animals at the Temple, or the offerings of meal, or the separation from one’s produce the gifts for the priests and Levites. The Jew had to recite the proper formal blessing before eating and then could benefit from the produce of the land” (Zahavy 1990, p. 32). <br /><br />Dr. <a href="http://avichai.org/person/steven-brown/">Steven M. Brown</a> [in a personal conversation] asserts that there is an ethical responsibility derived from our awareness of the world as a gift from God. When one receives a precious gift, and offers one’s gratitude for it, in doing so one must also take responsibility for the care and safe-keeping of that gift. Similarly, he concludes, once we are aware that food, and the Earth itself, is a Divine gift, we are obligated to become stewards, or care-takers, of the planet.<br /><br />There are many implications of this statement, and there is great disagreement about the degree to which such obligations may be extended. Yet, few would disagree that we are in an era of increasing awareness of the impact that our individual and collective actions have upon the planet. Many argue that unless dramatic life-style changes are made within our own lifetimes, irreversible damage will be done to fragile ecosystems across the globe.<br /><br /><i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i>, therefore, is an opportunity to be mindful of the Jewish law of “<i>Ba’al Tashchit</i>,” avoiding wasteful destruction; of ecological issues, including water quality, habitat depletion, and bio-engineering of food; and of steps individuals can take, such as recycling and shopping consciously. </blockquote>If this is indeed true - that as we say <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i>&nbsp;we should give some thought to the leftovers (<i>psolet</i>) on our plates, to recycling, and so forth - how much the more so in this <i>shmitah</i>&nbsp;year!<br /><br /><u>References</u><br /><blockquote><ul>Chill, Abraham. <u>The Mitzvot: The Commandments and Their Rationale</u>. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing, 1974.</ul><ul>Garfiel, Evelyn. <u>The Service of the Heart.</u> New York: United Synagogue of America, 1958.</ul><ul>Goldberger, Moshe. <u>How to thank Hashem for Food: Lessons from Birkas Ha-Mazon.</u> New York: Gross Books, 1988.</ul><ul>Klein, Isaac. <u>A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice.</u> New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1972.</ul><ul>Munk, Elie. <u>The World of Prayer</u>. New York: Philip Feldheim, 1954.</ul><ul>Scherman, Rabbi Nosson.&nbsp; <u>The Complete Artscroll Siddur: Nusach Ashkenaz</u>.&nbsp; New York: Mesorah Publications, 1984.</ul><ul>Waskow, Arthur. <u>Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life.</u> New York: William Morrow and Company, 1995.</ul><ul>Zahavy, Tzvee. Studies in Jewish Prayer. Lanham, Maryland: United Press of America, 1990.</ul></blockquote>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-53372142868800074552014-08-21T11:27:00.002-04:002014-08-21T13:46:45.635-04:00Why do we bless our bread? (Part II)Continuing to mine my master's thesis on <b><i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i></b>, the grace after meals, as we build up to the <a href="http://hazon.org/shmita-project/overview/"><i>shmita</i> year</a>, this week I share with you the section on using the prayer as an opportunity to focus on proper nutrition. I won't overstate the analogy, but I believe that just as saying this prayer can be a time for personal and communal reflection on issues relating to food, diet and nutrition, so too can we look at the coming year as a chance to rethink and renew our approaches to these topics. <a href="http://www.lookstein.org/resources/birkat_hamazon.pdf">The thesis in its entirety</a> can be found online at the <a href="http://www.lookstein.org/">Lookstein Center</a> for Jewish Education. The full text of this section is after the jump.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">The World Health Organization defines "<a href="http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html">Health</a>" as balance between physical, mental and social being. <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon </i>reminds us of the need to pay attention to, and strike a balance between, each one of these aspects of our health. <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i> is a social activity, as it is often said as the conclusion of a communal meal. Focusing on the text can lead to heightened cognitive awareness of, and encounter with, challenging issues affecting Jews and people in general. Here, I wish to look at the role that <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i> can play as a focal point in thinking about the physical impact of food on our bodies, or in other words, for nutrition education.<br /><br />According to Genesis 1:26, humans are created “<i><a href="http://justaction.org/torahstudy/btzelem-elohim-text1.htm">b’tzelem Elohim</a></i>,” in the image of God. Although the interpretations of this are manifold, one generally accepted implication is that any form of self-harm violates Jewish law as it is a desecration of the Divine image. The extent to which this principle is applied varies: Some communities forbid body-piercing based on this idea, while others will not smoke cigarettes. Arguably, a concern for proper diet and exercise should be considered a Jewish obligation.<br /><br /><i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i> is a mandatory pause at the conclusion of a meal. We can use this time to make a connection between the food we have eaten and the nourishment it has provided us. This is also an opportunity for us to reflect upon the choices we have made with the foods we have eaten. One might ask oneself questions along the lines of: <a href="http://www.jewcology.com/resource/Reducing-Psolet-Food-waste-in-our-School-Lunch-Rooms">Did I waste food</a>? &nbsp;Did I overeat? Was the food grown (or raised) in a manner that fits with my ethics? How did this food get from its point of origin to me? How did the choices I made affect other people’s lives?<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Furthermore, <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon </i>can be an opportunity to focus on eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia. [The guidance of a trained counselor should be sought before leading any discussions on this subject.] Such “unhealthy eating” might be contrasted with the self-denial of the Jewish fasts. Regulated fasts are an intrinsic part of the Jewish year, and fasting is considered by many rabbis to be an effective form of atonement. Nevertheless, health is always considered a priority, and those for whom fasting is a health concern are forbidden to do so.<br /><br />One might also make the connection to the entire digestive process. Just as there are blessings to be said before and after eating, there is also a blessing to be said after elimination! The “<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asher_yatzar">asher yatzar</a></i>” blessing, which is recited after using the bathroom, thanks God for the wondrous working of our internal organs.<br /><br />In short, <i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i>, as a pause after eating, can be a time to reflect upon and re-evaluate the food decisions which one makes, from the types of food to the quantity. The balance between the social, mental, and physical aspects of the blessing can help us to examine the balance between these aspects in our lives.</blockquote><br />Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-69293964926550699502014-08-07T16:21:00.001-04:002014-09-16T11:08:44.570-04:00Why do we bless our bread?<div class="tr_bq">As some of you will recall, my master's thesis as a student at Davidson School of Education (15 years ago!) was on <b><i>Birkat Ha-Mazon</i></b>, the grace after meals. As we round the corner into a <a href="http://hazon.org/shmita-project/overview/">shmita year</a>, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you a section of that work. <a href="http://www.lookstein.org/resources/birkat_hamazon.pdf">The thesis in its entirety</a> can be found online at the Lookstein Center for Jewish Education. The full text of this section be found after the jump.</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">A concern for food appears at the very beginning of the Bible. Sustenance for human beings, and for all creatures, is viewed as an intrinsic component of the Divine plan of creation. In God’s first address to humanity, in the first chapter of Genesis, God instructs the humans that they may eat from every plant on the ground and every fruit of the tree (Gen. 1:29). Shortly thereafter, this is qualified with the prohibition against eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). Just as babies receive nourishment while in the womb, in the “perfect” paradise of the Garden of Eden, food is provided for humans without any effort on their part. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">When the humans are expelled from Eden, a new stage in their relationship with food begins. Now, God admonishes Adam, only “by the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat” (Gen. 3:19). This is the first mention of bread in the Bible, which, in contrast to the fruit of the Garden of Eden, requires human labor. In the next chapter, perhaps in response to the anxiety provoked by the responsibility of providing food for oneself, Cain and Abel bring the first sacrificial offerings to God (Gen. 4:3-4). This offering can be seen as a petition, or as a thanksgiving, for successful harvests and healthy livestock.<br /><br />Arthur Waskow writes of two ways by which the ancient Israelites sanctified the food they ate, which can be traced back to these first four chapters of Genesis. “One major approach they took to hallowing food was to set some aside as sacred, others as forbidden” (23). &nbsp;The prohibition against eating from the tree of knowledge can be seen as paradigmatic of this approach, later reflected in laws of Kashrut, tithing, fasts, Sabbatical years, and so on. The “other process for hallowing food was to take the products of the land to a single place, the Temple in Jerusalem, there to bring God near to them” (24). The offerings of Cain and Abel are the prototype for sacrificial worship, evinced in stories of Noah (Gen. 8:20), Abraham (Gen. 12:7) and so on, and which ultimately reaches its peak in the unified system of regulated sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">These two dimensions for the sanctification of food -- that of making distinctions between food which may and may not be eaten and that of consecrating food as an offering to God -- will be discussed in great detail in the upcoming sections. &nbsp;Here, I wish to emphasize that there is a third conception of the sanctification of food. The very act of eating, the turning of physical matter into energy, of the life-force in a plant or animal into one’s own life-force, is in itself a sacred activity.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Samuel H. Dresner contrasts the way that such basic human drives as hunger and sex are understood by Paganism and Judaism. Paganism “glorifies these powers as such,” (13) and sees the natural world as intrinsically holy. The only goal of life, consequently, is the satisfaction of one’s basic, hedonistic desires. In Jewish thought, by contrast, only God, “the Holy One,” is seen as intrinsically holy; nature, and the natural world, “is neither holy nor unholy” (14). Biblical support for this idea is found in the wording of the story of creation. As Allen Grossman points out (392), when God creates the world, and the various living things in it, God does not call it “holy,” but “good” (Gen. 1:10, 12, etc.).<br /><br />However, the possibility of making the ordinary into the sacred is a constant potential, a potential that is realized when the Divine is made present through human activity. Judaism, therefore, asserts that in every action there is a potential for holiness, and life is structured around the attempt to realize this potential in every deed. Indeed, “the duty of the Jew is to lift up all of life to God, to hallow the everyday, so that all of life becomes holy” (Dresner, 17, italics in the original). The hallowing of daily life is accomplished by two means: The performance of Mitzvot -- actions commanded by God -- and the saying of blessings, the purpose of which is the realization of the Divine quality of every action. Eating, as one of the most basic of daily activities, one shared with all animals (and, in some sense, plants), is an opportunity to bring holiness into one’s life on a consistent and fundamental basis.<br /><br />The Jewish mystical tradition sees the sanctification of eating as “not just one among many aspects of correct action . . . [but] among the most important” (Waskow, 100). The Sefer Yetzirah explains that in order to create the world, God had to contract inwardly and open a space in which a finite, knowable universe could exist. God created vessels (“keylim”) within which to contain the holiness that had been contracted, but they could not hold the Divine presence and shattered into fragments. Sparks of Divine holiness (“n’tzitzot”) were scattered throughout all of creation. Through the hallowing of daily activities, one may gather these scattered sparks of holiness, thereby healing and repairing the world (“tikkun olam”). <br /><br />Saying Birkat Ha-Mazon is a Mitzvah; even if said by rote, one sanctifies the act of eating. However, according to the sixteenth century mystic Isaac Luria, this is not enough to free the spark of Divine holiness that may be embedded in the food one eats. Only through intense concentration and spiritual focus (“kavanah”) can this be accomplished. In contemporary terms, one might see the act of making the blessing as an opportunity both to realize that it is miraculous that we can turn plants and animals into energy, or to become mindful of how this energy will be used to work toward the betterment of the world.<br /><br />Arizal explicitly connects the sparks of holiness with the nourishment that food provides. He explains that “every physical object or being owes its existence to a holy spark buried within it. Man’s soul inhabits his body and derives nourishment from the food he eats as well as from the Torah he studies and the good deeds he performs. A person eats. His body extracts the vitamins and minerals in needs, but that does not keep him alive, for if his soul were to leave him he would be no more animate than rocks and sand. &nbsp;His soul extracts the spark of holiness within the food – and that maintains life” (Scherman, 1977, 18).<br /><br />In the chapter of Deuteronomy in which we find the passage upon which Birkat Ha-Mazon is based, Moses also tells the Israelites that God gave them “manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had ever known, in order to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but that man may live on anything that the Lord decrees” (Deut. 8:3). Scherman, quoting from the Sifsei Tzaddik’s commentary on this verse, writes that “the great lesson of the manna [was that] man does not live by bread – by flour and water and leavening, its calories and vitamins and minerals – he lives by the emanations of God that are in every slice of bread.” (Scherman, 1977, 18, italics in the original). It is perhaps no coincidence that authorship of the first paragraph of Birkat Ha-Mazon is attributed to Moses, when the manna first fell from the sky.<br /><br />In Jewish thought, eating is not seen as an end in itself, but as a means to an end. Reciting Birkat Ha-Mazon is an essential step toward experiencing the act of eating as a holy act, especially when it is said with comprehension and with intention. It is also the perfect opportunity for us to focus on the choices we make about what we put into our bodies and how we use the energy this nutrition provides.</blockquote><br /><u>References</u><br /><blockquote><br /><ul><li>Dresner, Samuel H.&nbsp; <u>The Jewish Dietary Laws: Their Meaning for our Time</u>.&nbsp; New York: The Burning Bush Press, 1959. </li></ul><br /><ul><li>Grossman,Allen. <u>Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought</u> Eds. Arthur A. Cohen and Paul Mendes-Flohr. New York: The Free Press, 1987&nbsp;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>Scherman, Rabbi Nosson.&nbsp; <u>Birkat Ha-Mazon: Grace After Meals</u>.&nbsp; New York: Mesorah Publications, 1977. &nbsp;</li></ul><br /><ul><li>Waskow, Arthur. <u>Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life</u>.&nbsp; New York: William Morrow and Company, 1995.&nbsp;</li></ul></blockquote>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-72021809154564021362014-07-31T16:21:00.001-04:002014-07-31T16:21:27.178-04:00How to ask a question (?) (!) (?)The following is a excerpt from the article "<a href="http://www.lookstein.org/online_journal.php?id=265">Active Learning in the <i>Halakha </i>class</a>"&nbsp;by <a href="http://www.lookstein.org/podcasts/">Mark Smilowitz</a>, which&nbsp;first appeared in the Lookstein Center's journal <i><a href="http://www.lookstein.org/journal.php">Jewish Educational Leadership</a>:</i><o:p></o:p><br /><blockquote>Classically, teachers and students alike tend to view questions as stemming from problems; if nothing bothers you, you don't ask. Even progressive methods devised to make students active learners through questioning seem to view questions as stemming from problems. For example, the "inquiry training" model relies on presenting students with puzzling events that will naturally arouse their curiosity and stimulate their questions. This approach "deliberately selects episodes that have sufficiently surprising outcomes to make it difficult for students to remain indifferent to the encounter.<br /><br />Perhaps you've seen a science exhibition where they put a blown up balloon into liquid nitrogen, and it comes out shrunk. The kids are naturally stimulated to ask why it does that, because the outcome is surprising. This is precisely the kind of curiosity-generating activity that would kick off a unit in the inquiry training approach.<br /><br />But let's consider another way to stimulate curiosity. Take a regular balloon, a normal object that doesn't automatically generate questions, and hold it up in front of a classroom as is, and tell students they have two minutes to write down as many questions as they can think of that will help them understand the balloon better. Tell them not to hold back, but to let their imaginations go. <br /><br />When I do this experiment on myself, I find that I suddenly become interested in things I wasn't interested in before – science questions such as why balloons lose their air after a while, manufacturing questions like how balloons are made, or maybe economic questions like how do they decide how much balloons cost. When one is prompted in this manner, instead of curiosity generating questions, it is the discipline of questioning that generates the curiosity. We might refer to this latter kind of question as a research-oriented question, as opposed to a problem-based question, because asking this kind of question is often the key to researching a topic <br /><br />My guess is that most students only know about problem-based questions and are never taught to ask research-oriented questions. Neil Postman expressed his “astonishment at the neglect shown in school toward” the art of formulating questions. “All our knowledge results from questions, which is another way of saying that question asking is our most important intellectual tool. I would go so far as to say that the answers we carry about in our heads are largely meaningless unless we know the questions which produced them.”</blockquote>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-72570889368351862642014-06-15T13:51:00.000-04:002014-06-23T10:24:18.058-04:00Tefilah: Empowering Prayer Communities through School WorshipAs Reform Jews, our beliefs pull us in two directions. On the one hand, we cherish our autonomy: Our freedom to express ourselves as individuals and to make choices that are entirely our own. At the same time, we know the value of community: Our sense of obligation to others with whom we share a history and a destiny. This dynamic tension can be creative and inspirational – or it can be exhausting and alienating. Perhaps nowhere in Jewish life is the challenge of finding equilibrium between these two forces felt as strongly as in synagogue worship. Prayer is an intensely personal experience, yet when we come together for worship as part of a congregation, we often use words written by someone we have never met and in a language we don’t understand.<br /><br />In our religious school at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/school">Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York</a>, students learn to respond to this challenge by becoming sophisticated and empowered participants in prayer services. Tefilah (worship) is an integral part of our curriculum, comprising as much as 25 percent of the time that students are in school. Students not only learn the skills to pray as part of a Jewish community but also engage in a rich dialogue about the liturgy that helps them to find personal meaning in the words they say. The experience is transforming how our students see themselves, as they become equipped to grapple with their personal relationships with the Divine amidst a congregation of diverse individuals.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Our youngest students begin with only a few prayers, <a href="http://bindersfullofprayers.tumblr.com/">kept in a loose-leaf siddur</a> (prayerbook). Students learn to associate the melodies with the Hebrew texts even before they can read the letters. We teach the shorter prayers with catchy melodies that repeat the words again and again; longer prayers are taught line-by-line. From grades three to five, the melodies used for each prayer are kept largely consistent from week to week, enabling students to develop a sense of routine and familiarity. They are expected to know when to sit, stand, and bow without prompting. As students grow in fluency and self-confidence, additional pages are added, providing the students with a feeling of accomplishment as they gradually build their repertoire.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/X1wSH2ERGmk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><br />As students learn the prayers in Hebrew, they also deliberate about their meaning. At each prayer service, we pose a question to the students to help them think deeply about the words they are saying, like “what’s so great about having one God?” or “if we’ve been praying for peace for so many years, why is there still war?” Before sharing their responses with the full group, students tackle these questions in chevruta (with a partner), a collaborative, traditional Jewish approach to learning. Discussion with a classmate helps each student to clarify and refine his or her thinking and ensures that each student’s opinion is heard by at least one other person. <br /><br />Depending on its length, students may spend anywhere from a few weeks to several months unpacking the different ideas contained within a prayer. At the conclusion of their study, the students meet in the school’s art room to create an original design for the page in their prayer books. The students surround the Hebrew text with their own images, words, and symbols, so that every time they look at the page, they will have personal reminders of what the words mean to them. <br /><br />For our elementary school students, familiarity with the Hebrew liturgy and confidence in sharing one’s own interpretations of it are the primary goals. As our students approach adolescence -- and the responsibilities associated with becoming a bar or bat mitzvah -- our sixth grade curriculum empowers them to lead prayer services they find personally meaningful. In the first half of the year, we show our students the wonderful diversity of Reform Jewish worship. For example, they participate in the Emanu-El daily Sunset service using the Union Prayer Book, they read Jewish and Israeli poetry aloud in English, and they engage in silent meditative reflection with no prayer book at all. After each of these services, we guide the students to compare it with other prayer services they have attended and to take note of which aesthetic choices resonate with them. By answering questions like, “What did and didn’t work for you in this service?” the students learn to articulate for themselves which elements of a service most enable them to have an inspirational and uplifting prayer experience. Further, they come to recognize many different styles of worship as legitimate and of value, even if not personally to their taste.<br /><br />During the second half of the sixth grade year, students gather in small groups to plan a worship service for their peers. Students make use of all the skills learned in previous years as well as their own talents and creativity. Some play musical instruments, while others use visuals projected onto a screen. Services might be held in the Main Sanctuary or on the roof; seated in pews, chairs, or in a circle on the floor. As the students work together to make the service engaging and meaningful, they develop an increasing awareness of their own worship preferences and sensibilities. At the same time, they come to understand that they may sometimes need to compromise their own personal and aesthetic preferences in order to participate as part of a community. We always invite the parents of the students who are leading the service to attend, and they rarely miss the opportunity to sit with pride, watching their children lead their peers in prayer.<br /><br />Through their participation in school worship, a new generation of Reform Jewish children is finding relevance in the ancient words of our tradition. The insights they express about the words of the prayers are at the same time creative, sincere and personal. By tapping into their natural sense of wonder and reason, of imagination and critical reflection, our children gain insight not just into the words of the prayers, but also into the nature of the world. We believe these students will grow up prepared to participate in and lead diverse, empowered and engaged worship communities.<br /><br />To watch a three-minute video of our school prayer service in action, visit our website at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.emanuelnyc.org/tefilah">www.emanuelnyc.org/tefilah</a>. Join us for <a href="https://www.blogger.com/www.shabbatkodesh.org">Shabbat Kodesh</a>, our family worship service each month – all ages are welcome!Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-56682107503391860962014-06-06T11:12:00.000-04:002015-03-14T10:08:03.043-04:00Tzedakah: Building a Culture of Equity<a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-statement-of-jewish-educational.html">Last week</a>, I posted a personal vision statement for Jewish education. Over the coming year, I will offer suggestions as to how this vision can be implemented based on examples from my work at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/school">Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York</a>. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K-n-xqFb3bY/U5HYAp6bkiI/AAAAAAAAJo0/zGfJWN9LGKY/s1600/tzedakah+box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K-n-xqFb3bY/U5HYAp6bkiI/AAAAAAAAJo0/zGfJWN9LGKY/s1600/tzedakah+box.jpg" /></a></div><br />In so doing, I want to emphasize that collaboration is the cornerstone of our methodology, and I am reporting on the intersection between my philosophy and the work we do, not taking credit for our achievements.<br /><br />I begin with a look at how we teach about <b>tzedakah.&nbsp;</b>I think this is something most of us working in supplementary school education get right. This is, to my mind, a clear way to demonstrate the critical role of Jewish education not only to guide value-driven practice and participation in Jewish community (as if those weren’t enough!), but also to offer unique ways of engaging the world. <br /><br />At Emanu-El, we teach that the Hebrew word tzedakah literally means, not “charity” (from the Latin “<i>caritas</i>,” “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_(virtue)">altruistic love</a>”), but “justice.” On our <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/ed_relig_tzedakah">website</a>, in our classrooms, and through family programming, we emphasize that sharing our good fortune equitably with others is not only an act of compassion, but a <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=362">responsibility</a>. We <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=281">show how</a> <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=289">our tradition teaches</a> that our achievements are always dependent upon Divine providence, and that with our wealth, we must seek equity. Further, we emphasize how this sense of responsibility has always, and continues to play, a central role in our communal identity. <br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Each Fall, our <a href="https://www.emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/ed_relig_council">student council</a> (composed of students in grades 4 – 7) debates the relative merits of different causes and selects two organizations to be the recipients of the funds we raise. Members of our high school <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/ed_youth_ateem">A-TEEM</a> (“<i>Assistant Temple Emanu-El Madrichim</i>”) then teach the students about the work of these organizations. Students are encouraged to bring tzedakah every week, and we regularly announce (and celebrate) where our fundraising stands. This collection fits into the framework of life that the parents live, many of whom are philanthropically minded. The student council also runs a booth at our Purim Carnival to teach about (and raise funds for) these causes.<br /><br />Yet, there are also times when we, as the school leadership, decide where the funds we raise must go. Our first beneficiary every year is <a href="http://www.nycommonpantry.org/about.html">New York Common Pantry</a>, so that we may take action on hunger locally, in our immediate neighborhood. Most years, we (sadly) have at least one week in which tzedakah is diverted for an urgent response to an emergency, such as typhoon Haiyan or super-storm Sandy. Thanks to the suggestion of a religious school parent, during the week of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 8) our collection supports <a href="http://www.bluecardfund.org/about-us.html">The Blue Card</a>, an organization that provides financial assistance to destitute Holocaust survivors. By sharing with our children the causes that matter to us, we pass along our values to the next generation. <br /><br />Our students not only raise funds, they also provide direct assistance to those in need. Through the Emanu-El <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/com_volunteer_tikkun">Tikkun Olam Committee</a>, we run “Mini-Mitzvah ” projects prior to the start of school and during school hours over the course of the year. Social justice becomes the central focus of our 7th grade <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/ed_youth_mitzvah">Mitzvah Corps</a>. Throughout the year, these students learn about different social issues and then volunteer in agencies that respond to them. However, we do not want our children to grow up to be “mitzvah dilettantes,” believing that a single act of volunteering can address deep need. Therefore, the students who participate in at least 18 sessions during the course of that year (the “Mitzvah Messengers”) decide together which cause they will focus on as 8<sup>th</sup> graders in our <a href="https://www.emanuelnyc.org/simple.php/ed_relig_tzedekleague">Tzedek League</a>. These students examine the root causes of social inequality and injustice, and respond through direct service, philanthropy, and advocacy (by lobbying a city council member or state senator about legislation that can address the issue they have chosen).<br /><br />As Jews, when we give tzedakah, what we do looks like what others are doing when they give charity. The critical point is that we understand it differently. At Emanu-El, we believe that our students are learning that with privilege comes responsibility. Our young people understand that it is their responsibility, as Jews, not only to study but also to act upon their beliefs. Our students become both advocates for causes they believe in and philanthropists on their behalf.Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-37999926426084183532014-05-31T17:43:00.000-04:002014-06-05T10:25:11.174-04:00My Statement of Jewish Educational PhilosophyI am committed to developing learning experiences that are relevant, inspirational and transformative. I aim to provide students and their families with the tools to participate meaningfully in the community, with pride in their heritage and with the awareness that their actions will shape the future in ways beyond their imagination.<br /><br />Education is an intrinsically optimistic endeavor. Our work as educators is predicated on the faith that we can inspire our students to personal growth and empower them to achieve greatness. Further, we believe that by studying the past we can successfully prepare our students for an unknown future. Therefore, we act as translators, of a sort: we strive to make the lessons of the past relevant to contemporary sensibilities.<br /><br />I believe the most compelling questions of value and meaning have remained largely the same since the days of the Bible. As Jews, we look to our people’s history for direction as we ask ourselves the same questions that confronted our ancestors, like “What kind of person do I want to become?” and “What kind of world do I hope for myself and for future generations to inhabit?” &nbsp;The role of the educator is not to pass along definitive answers to these questions, but rather to engage our learners in striving together to formulate sophisticated and nuanced responses that inspire them to action.<br /><br />The Jewish school can be a center for Jewish life, where our students encounter one another’s ways of being Jewish. &nbsp;In accepting one another for who we are and what we believe, we empower one another to say “I can be myself here and I can figure out who I might want to be.” I believe our classrooms must be the “laboratory” for the Jewish future, providing vital and distinctive experiences our students cannot find elsewhere in their lives and in which cultural experimentation – the production, rather than consumption of culture – is the norm. <br /><br />Parents, students and other members of the school community must be stakeholders in the success of this endeavor, playing a critical role in shaping the school’s vision and culture. It is essential that we validate the diversity of experiences of those individuals, offering access and authority to those whose voices have been absent from communal Jewish life. Simultaneously, a school’s faculty and leadership must strive constantly to model the thoughtfulness and mutual respect that we seek to promote in our students and their families. The care and concern our teachers have for each child enables our students to support one another and to challenge themselves to grow as individuals, as family members and as part of an ethical community.<br /><br />As Jews, we are b’nai Yisrael, the “children of those who have wrestled with God and prevailed.” We are fortunate to be the inheritors of an ancient wisdom that guides us in living principled lives in complicated times. At the same time, we assert our right to be a part of a community that struggles to make meaning of the profound and the sacred.<br /><br />It is our task to strive to become the best people we can be, proud of our heritage while accepting no dogma blindly, guided by the decisions of previous generations while empowered to take responsibility for arriving at our own conclusions. As part of vital networks of friends and families who are reflective about their actions, passionate about their beliefs and kindhearted toward one another, we can be confident in our children’s ability to shape their own destinies, and join together with those of all faiths and backgrounds to build a just and virtuous society.Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-26212316136609375002014-02-17T10:28:00.000-05:002014-02-17T10:28:02.400-05:00My favorite quotes: Mamie GamoranWhen did people start talking about post-denominationalism and identify themselves as "just Jews?" Could it perhaps have been as long ago as the 1930s? Let's see what <a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gamoran-mamie">Mamie Gamoran</a>, author of "<a href="http://thewholemegillah.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/a-history-of-jewish-children%E2%80%99s-books%E2%80%94part-one/">Hillel's Happy Holidays</a>" and the wife of <a href="http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=5697">Emanuel Gamoran</a> (the first director of education for the UAHC, now the <a href="http://urj.org/">Union for Reform Judaism</a>) has to say on the subject:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://thewholemegillah.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/hillel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://thewholemegillah.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/hillel.jpg" height="320" title="" width="243" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">“We were liberals in our thinking, in our children's education, in our religious practices. Nevertheless, we erected a Sukka on our wide, open porch each Sukkot holiday, and served wine tea and cake to as many as two hundred visitors. Some guests shook the lulav and said the blessings for the first time. I used to say jokingly, 'the Reform say we are Orthodox and the Orthodox say we are Reform.' But we wanted to be Jews without a label, and I think we had a real Jewish home.”&nbsp;</span></blockquote><br /><div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">From Mamie Gamoran's manuscript, "A Family History," in the American Jewish Archives, cited in Jonathan Krasner's "<a href="http://forward.com/articles/141660/how-one-man-shaped-american-jewish-education/">The Benderly Boys and American Jewish Education</a>" (Brandeis University Press, 2011).&nbsp;</div>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-86562829170786546942014-01-24T12:28:00.000-05:002014-06-23T10:25:57.729-04:00What does it mean to live a life that is "authentically Jewish?"<div class="MsoNormal">Identity theorist&nbsp;<a href="http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elli_Schachter/" target="_blank">Elli P. Schachter</a>, following Erikson, observes that one’s “historical era or social environment” constrain one’s options for identification or practice, limiting the available choices. Awareness of, and knowledge about the cultural traditions that have already shaped one’s identity and continue to influence one's behavior -- in other words, the stories of those who came before us and how they lived their loves -- allow the individual to more fully recognize the scope of available options. Perhaps it has always been this way, but it seems to me that for us today, being Jewish demands a constant re-examining of, and re-committing to, one’s beliefs and practices. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Given the social and geographic mobility common to North American Jews in particular, and the rapid pace of change in technology and science in contemporary times, it is certain that we will consistently be exposed to new ideas and information throughout our lives. &nbsp;We can expect to be faced with unfamiliar situations that allow for (and demand) new responses. &nbsp;In such a context, ongoing study, skill-building and dialogue becomes an imperative, so that we, our communities and our institutions may respond appropriately to new situations as they arise -- this is one of the things I mean when I speak about "life-long learning." By imitating successful endeavors, past or contemporary, intentional or developed through trial-and-error, we take on a new positions and practices, we modify the beliefs we previously held as conclusive. &nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">To be authentically Jewish is to&nbsp;</span>take a stance on our values and behaviors</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>&nbsp;and to articulate how&nbsp;they relate to our inherited traditions.</b>&nbsp; I say stance, rather than commitment, because I believe our values and behaviors must be constantly reaffirmed,&nbsp;</span>in the context of each particular set of circumstances,&nbsp;with an openness to the possibility of realigning one's beliefs and practice<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;in light of shifting settings and newly acquired information.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I contend that taking such a stance is a possibility - and legitimate - at any point in one’s life, at any level of knowledge.&nbsp;</span>The need to better inform oneself in order to intentionally choose one’s behaviors and beliefs is necessary at all points of one’s life – as true for those who are knowledgeable as those who are at the beginning of their study.&nbsp;<span style="font-family: inherit;">In actuality, we can never have comprehensive knowledge so that we might make a completely coherent decision. So we must be unafraid to take a stance on an idea or a practice simply because there is more to be learned. Choosing to delay making a&nbsp;</span>decision<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;to change is, after all, a decision as well.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">An analogy: When we commit to another person in a relationship, both the relationship and the commitment itself grow and change over time. &nbsp;They are tested by a variety of new contexts and situations.&nbsp;</span>Just as some relationships will fail to survive, or to thrive, over time, so too must some values or behaviors be modified as new ones are learned that fit better with one’s increasing knowledge or changing life-experience.<br /><br />However, at some point we must acknowledge that the change is so great that we can only describe it with the words "break." When we can no longer explain how our values or behavior relate to the previous tradition,&nbsp;at that point, we must admit that we have started something new.<br /><br />In other words: I am disagreeing with the definition of "authentic" that says it means "true to oneself" or in other words, authenticity as relevance. But I'm also disagreeing with the definition of authentic as "the way we used to do it" or authenticity as consistent with the past. I'm saying that those two principles are in tension, and authenticity means taking a stance that accounts for both of them, being reflective about that choice, and being open to rethink in light of changing circumstances.<br /><br />So, it isn't "keeping kosher is a more authentic way of being Jewish" and it also isn't "I eat pork and that's an authentic expression of who I am," but rather "let me explain what keeping kosher means to me."<br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 18.7pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: 18.7pt;">Reference: Elli P. Schachter, “Identity Constraints: The Perceived Structural Requirements of a ‘Good’ Identity.” <a href="http://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/66259" target="_blank">Human Development 45</a> (2002), 417.</span></div>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-86442069476147379102014-01-20T13:14:00.002-05:002014-01-20T13:15:50.215-05:00Ahavat Olam (Lennon/McCartney/Kaiserman): Love is All You Need<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; line-height: 18px;">So, I finally posted to YouTube a recording that&nbsp;</span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=660045592&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/evanschultz6" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Evan Schultz</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; line-height: 18px;">&nbsp;surreptitiously made of our version of "Ahavat Olam" to a familiar Lennon/McCartney tune at&nbsp;</span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/group.php?id=2233703003&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="http://www.kolzimrah.info/" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Kol Zimrah</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; line-height: 18px;">&nbsp;a decade ago. It has since become a standard at Shabbat Unplugged at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.shaaraytefilanyc.org/" target="_blank">Temple Shaaray Tefila</a> of New York City.</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; line-height: 18px;">&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm on guitar and lead vocals, along with the incomparable&nbsp;<a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=758093362&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/reut.regev" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Reut Regev</a>&nbsp;(<a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reutregev.com%2F&amp;h=AAQFx5VMC&amp;s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.reutregev.com</a>) on trombone,&nbsp;<a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100001940497903&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/michael.witman.16" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Michael Witman</a>&nbsp;on percussion and backup vocals, Evan on guitar and backup vocals, and, if my memory serves,&nbsp;<a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=533729312&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/david.monblatt" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">David Monblatt</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=588600190&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/amy.deutsch" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Amy Deutsch</a>&nbsp;on backup vocals. (The photo is from my wedding weekend, though). Love is all you need. Enjoy.</span></span><br /><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333969116211px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/pjZnbZnfl64?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0' /></div><br /><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; display: inline; line-height: 18px;"><span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-66504391966381462332013-11-14T11:13:00.001-05:002013-11-14T11:13:14.141-05:00My favorite quotes: Barnett R. BricknerWith <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/special-sections/education-careers/todays-complementary-ed-not-your-fathers-hebrew-school" target="_blank">all the talk</a> about how the religious school <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/radical_hebrew_school_model_taking_shape" target="_blank">is broken</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;in ne<a href="http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-redemption-of-hebrew-school-redux/" target="_blank">ed of redemption</a>,&nbsp;and <a href="http://livinglomed.blogspot.com/2013/11/7-lessons-learned-when-changing-jewish.html" target="_blank">how we need</a> <a href="http://livinglomed.blogspot.com/2013/11/saul-you-asked-what-are-17-models.html" target="_blank">new models</a>&nbsp;for, and <a href="http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/from-chair-pose-to-congregational-school-poised-for-changed/" target="_blank">approaches</a>&nbsp;to, supplementary Jewish education, I appreciated discovering this quote from the <a href="http://www.ccarnet.org/rabbis-speak/ccar-journal-reform-jewish-quarterly/" target="_blank">CCAR Journal</a>: The Reform Jewish Quarterly&nbsp;(#33):<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">“I do not think there is a rabbi in this Conference [the Central Conference of American Rabbis] who is satisfied with the Sunday school, who is not willing to subscribe his name to the fact that the Sunday school has been, as far as the purposes of Reform Judaism are concerned, a failure.”&nbsp;</span></blockquote>That's Rabbi <a href="http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=BBR1" target="_blank">Barnett R. Brickner</a> writing in ... wait for it ... 1923!Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-12312813815488116922013-11-06T11:48:00.000-05:002016-10-24T13:45:10.385-04:00My Full List of Torah Commentaries for Congregation Emanu-El<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In my time at <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/">Emanu-El</a>, I have contributed nearly thirty essays to our <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah_archive.php">weekly commentary</a>. These commentaries are written not only by the clergy and educational staff, but also our administrators. They vary widely in style, from academic scholarship to thoughtful homiletics to amusing retellings of the story from the point of view of one of the minor characters. In my own commentaries, I’ve often written about the educational programs at Emanu-El and how they attempt to make ancient wisdom relevant to our lives today.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m assembling here (after the jump) the full list of my commentaries, with a brief excerpt from each one. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is my absolute favorite thing I’ve written, from my <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=281">March 2012 Commentary on <i>Parshat Tzav</i></a>: “Jeremiah is not opposed to the pursuit of wisdom, strength or wealth, and neither should we be. Jeremiah tells us, if you must be driven by ego, then take pride in how you emulate God in your behavior. Don’t simply attain wisdom for its own sake, he says. Use your wisdom to bring about kindness. Use your strength in the pursuit of justice. And with your wealth, seek equity.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You can <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/lists.php">subscribe</a>to receive the weekly Torah commentary by email, and it is also available as an <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/rss/torah.php">RSS Feed</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a name='more'></a><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">GENESIS (<i>B’REISHIT</i>)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>B’reishit</i>&nbsp;(<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=488">2015</a>) “As befits the inscrutable story of creation, occurring beyond the limits of our scientific research and historic knowledge, the very first word of the Torah contains within it a mystery. Although the traditional English translation is “In the beginning,” it more accurately should be translated as “In a beginning” — in one beginning, among other beginnings ... implying that God created other worlds besides our own!”<br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>B’reishit</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=372">2013</a>) “We are so used to living with a seven-day week that it is hard to remember it is not a natural cycle but an invention. The week is completely different from the day, the month and the year, which are rooted in the observable movements of the sun and moon … For Jews in ancient Israel, however, time was marked by a weekly holiday, a cessation of work, Shabbat.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Noach</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=4">2007</a>) “For many people, the most important question raised by this story [of Noah’s ark] is, did this really happen? … I’m more interested in a different sort of question: Why did our ancestors think this was a story that was worth passing along from generation to generation? What message were they trying to teach their children?”<u><span style="color: blue; mso-themecolor: hyperlink;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Vayeira</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=142">2009</a>) “Abraham comes across as good and generous, but his actions probably don’t strike us as extraordinary. However, close examination of the choice of words used to tell this story reveal subtleties that demonstrate why Abraham exemplifies what it means to be a good host.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Tol’dot</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=377">2013</a>) “This [story of Jacob pretending to be Esau] is just one of the many tales in the Bible in which people wear a disguise or conceal who they are in order to achieve their goals … It is a thin line between clothing and costume, between dressing up and deception.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">EXODUS (<i>SH'MOT</i>)</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Sh'mot&nbsp;</i>(<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=501">2016</a>) “The second book of the Torah is known in English as “Exodus...” in Hebrew, however, the book and its first portion are called <i>Sh’mot</i> or “Names.” ... It is in this week’s portion as well that the Bible in a manner most mysterious explains what we should call God.”<br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Va-eira&nbsp;</i>(<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=445">2015</a>) “We acquire many names over the course of our lives, reflecting the ways we have grown and changed and the evolving roles that we play in the lives of others. In the same way, we call God by many names because we need God in many ways.”</span><br /><i style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></i><i style="font-family: inherit;">B’shalach</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (</span><a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=80" style="font-family: inherit;">2009</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) “Reading these words today, we may wonder if the story of the parting of the Red Sea happened the way it is described in the Bible. It is perhaps helpful to note that more than a thousand years ago, such commentators as Rashi had difficulty accepting that God would disrupt the order of the natural world.”</span><br /><i style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></i><i style="font-family: inherit;">B’shalach</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (</span><a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=332" style="font-family: inherit;">2013</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) “Early commentators remarked on the foresight of the Israelites, who left Egypt in such a hurry that they were unable to bake leavened bread, yet managed to grab their timbrels and drums, anticipating that there would be cause for celebration in their future.”</span><br /><i style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></i><i style="font-family: inherit;">T’rumah</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (</span><a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=219" style="font-family: inherit;">2011</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) “By coming together to share in the work of building the Sanctuary, it was the Jewish people itself that was built.”</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Ki Tisa&nbsp;</i>(<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=452">2015</a>) “How is it that within a few months after experiencing the greatest miracles in the story of our people — the ten plagues, the parting of the Red Sea and the revelation at Sinai — our ancestors lose faith in God and in Moses?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Vayak’heil/P’kudei </i>(<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=340">2013</a>) “Each month,&nbsp;our <a href="http://www.shabbatkodesh.org/">Shabbat Kodesh</a> family worship service features a dramatic, interactive skit based on the week’s Torah portion. The creation of this script is a collaborative and intentional process, incorporating methodologies pioneered by the organization “<a href="http://www.storahtelling.org/story.jsp?link=story" target="_blank">Storahtelling</a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">LEVITICUS (<i>VAYIKRA</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Tzav</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=281">2012</a>) “To many contemporary readers of the book of Leviticus, the entire notion of sacrificial worship is discomforting. But to find a critique of the institution of Temple sacrifice, we need look no further than the Haftarah reading that accompanies this portion, from the book of Jeremiah.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Tazria</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=227">2011</a>) “The Bible offers no physical explanation for this disease, and Rabbinic tradition holds that <i>tzaraat</i> is not a form of skin disease at all but rather the outward manifestation of an inner spiritual ailment, the visible embodiment of an inner ugliness.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>K’doshim</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=231">2011</a>) “As Jews, we aspire to a future in which people instinctively are righteous, in which all of us created in the Divine image live each day with holiness. But to get us to that better world, it is to Moses and the Torah that we must turn for guidance.”<span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>B’har/ B’chukotei</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=289">2012</a>) “In times of prosperity, it is easier to believe our wealth is the result of our labors than it is during times of poverty … The Sabbatical year is an assertion that the earth belongs not to its human inhabitants but to God alone.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">NUMBERS (<i>BAMIDBAR</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Naso</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=351">2013</a>) “To bend heavenly spirits to one’s own will, to take direct control over the forces of nature … is to take God’s power for one’s own … The power to bestow blessing should be exclusively in God’s domain, but in the Bible, the priest is endowed by birthright with this superhuman and supernatural ability. How can we reconcile [this] dissonance?”<span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Sh’lach L’cha</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=238">2011</a>) (with <a href="http://www.tign.org/educational-directors">Danny Mishkin</a>) “Why send [the 12 spies to scout out the land of Israel] ahead of the rest of the group? The Israelites need to know if their future life will be better than one spent wandering in the desert.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Korach</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=45">2008</a>) “Korach rightly observed that each one of us embodies the potential to be a leader within our community. His error was in believing holiness to be an innate quality within us rather than as a constant potential toward which we must strive.”<u><span style="color: blue; mso-themecolor: hyperlink;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Korach</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=114">2009</a>) “Our Israelite ancestors never learned from their mistakes, no matter how many times they were punished. This is, perhaps, a cautionary tale for us today … We must remember that punishment on its own doesn’t provide any guidance about what would be more appropriate behavior.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Korach</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=181">2010</a>) “The difference between the disputes of Hillel and Shammai and those of Korach and his assembly [with Moses] lie not in the words they use, nor in the causes they preach, but in the motivations that underlie their rivalry. As we learn from Hillel and Shammai, an “argument for the sake of heaven” is one that respects the perspective of the other even while we disagree with the position.”<u><span style="color: blue; mso-themecolor: hyperlink;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Chukat</i>&nbsp;(<a href="http://emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=413">2014</a>) “As we get better at understanding the patterns to explain everything around us, from the human body to the laws of physics, the notion that some things might be inexplicable can be demoralizing or even frightening.”<br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Balak</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=183">2010</a>)&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Each week, we in the Religious School begin our worship services with the students by singing the words from Numbers 24:5, ‘How good are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings, Israel!’ When we teach our students about this prayer, we ask them to offer a compelling explanation for what we could possibly mean when we say the word ‘Israel.’”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">DEUTERONOMY (<i>D’VARIM</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>D'varim</i>&nbsp;(<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=476">2015</a>) “&nbsp;Like the ancient Israelites, we must remember that as much as we have achieved in the familiar ways to which we have grown accustomed, before us lies a future of even greater possibility.<span style="font-family: inherit;">”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Va-et’chanan</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=304">2012</a>) “It is inevitable. As we get older, [we] aren’t really open to possibility the way we were when we were young. Those of us who were ‘born in Egypt’ carry with us the memories of hatred, suffering and unfairness, and they are part of our assumptions about how the world works. We bring them into our work: They may inspire us, but they define us and thereby limit us as well.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Eikev</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=127">2009</a>) “The Bible particularly is concerned with raising our awareness around eating … When we eat, we very literally take a piece of the world into ourselves because we receive the energy to live from sunlight that has been reshaped into a form that we can use. Eating has the potential not only to nourish our bodies but also our souls.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Eikev</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=305">2012</a>) “As Reform Jews, we are challenged to create physical expressions of our love for God (a string around our fingers, as it were) while maintaining our emphasis on the ethical over the symbolic.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Eikev</i> (<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=362">2013</a>)&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The Torah teaches us that it is precisely because we are less likely to be grateful during moments of satisfaction and fulfillment that we are instructed to … pause to reflect on our good fortune and our responsibilities to those less fortunate than ourselves, rather than immediately turning our attention to the next thing on our “to-do” lists once our hunger has been satisfied.”</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Shoftim</i>&nbsp;(<a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=537">2016</a>) “</span>Even with a perfect God as our King of Kings, it is inevitable that we will seek out mortal rulers. This week’s Torah portion teaches us how we may ensure that human authority remains accountable to those it governs.<span style="font-family: inherit;">”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></div></span></div></div>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-78919403396244395072013-11-04T15:51:00.004-05:002013-11-08T14:17:50.738-05:00Vision-Driven Institutions: Solomon Schechter School of ManhattanIn 2007, <a href="http://newjewisheducation.blogspot.com/2007/06/vision-driven-institutions-heschel.html">I wrote on this blog</a> about the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HeschelCenter">Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership</a> in Israel. At the time, I expressed my skepticism about my ability to turn this into a regular feature, but here I am, just six short years later, with a description of another innovative institution, the <a href="http://www.sssm.org/">Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan</a>. I wrote this piece as part of my coursework for the <a href="http://www.jtsa.edu/Academics/Registrar/Academic_Bulletin/AB_William_Davidson_Graduate_School_of_Jewish_Education/AB_Davidson_EdD_Program_-_Executive_Doctoral_Program.xml">executive doctoral program</a> at the Davidson School of Education. This is not a comprehensive discussion of the institution, but a description of just one element of the program, and the institutional leader who created it.<br /><br />Dr. Steven Lorch is the founding headmaster of the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, a K-8 Jewish Day School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that is currently in its 18th year. I taught at Schechter Manhattan for three years. I loved its team-teaching approach (every class is led by two teachers, both fluent in Hebrew, who share responsibility for all areas of the curriculum), its constructivist philosophy, and its focus on <i>menschlichkeit </i>[kindness and empathy] as a core component of the institution. Yet, no aspect of my work there has influenced me more thoroughly than the experience of leading daily worship and teaching its <a href="http://www.sssm.org/cf_enotify/view.cfm?n=823" target="_blank"><i>tefilah </i>[prayer] curriculum</a>. At both <a href="http://www.centralsynagogue.org/learning/sahra_william_lese_religious_school">Central Synagogue</a> and <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/">Congregation Emanu-El</a> of the City of New York, the two institutions I have served since leaving Schechter Manhattan, I have attempted to adapt the Schechter prayer curriculum to suit the needs of a Reform Jewish supplementary school setting. This sketch focuses solely on this aspect of Dr. Lorch’s work: His role as the creator of the Schechter Manhattan <i>tefilah </i>curriculum.<br /><br /><br /><a name='more'></a>In Dr. Lorch’s estimation, “children emerge from this program with several invaluable assets” that clearly distinguish them from the graduates of other Jewish schools. First and foremost, the majority of students “consider themselves to have a personal relationship with God. They are comfortable and fearless about engaging in God talk.” At the same time, students “have an evolving notion of God and of the relationship between God and human beings and between God and the Jewish people.” And, perhaps most importantly, “they are reflective about their awareness of that evolving understanding.” In other words, not only does their relationship with God become more sophisticated as they grow older, they are also able to articulate their perspectives on that process. Simultaneously, “they know the words and <i>nusach </i>[prayer liturgy and the associated melodies] as well as they can be known [and] they are comfortable functioning as leaders of different kinds in various <i>tefilah </i>settings.” While Dr. Lorch acknowledges that there are other schools where students graduate with some of these skills and characteristics, he isn’t aware of another school where this happens as consistently and comprehensively.<br /><br />The success of the <i>tefilah </i>curriculum is predicated on cultivating in the students “a facility with engaging regularly with questions of ultimate value.” Dr. Lorch considers this something that children do spontaneously. “If it’s encouraged, it flourishes, and children grow to have great spiritual lives in which they are regularly thinking about important issues and connecting their experiences, their lives, and their concerns to these questions.” However, in his opinion, adults usually view such questions negatively, and after a while, children “get the message and stop doing it.” This was his experience as a child, and as a result, he judges himself to be as a less spiritual person than he might otherwise have become. <br /><br />Responding to his dissatisfaction with his own spiritual education has been a primary motivation to develop a curriculum in which children are engaged by adults in theological discourse. “I can’t turn the clock back and turn myself into a six-year-old. I can do it with 18 children in the first grade class every year. Had I gone to Schechter Manhattan, I would be a different person. I would be a different Jew. I would have a different relationship with God.”<br /><br />Although Schechter Manhattan is the fourth school he has headed, Dr. Lorch did not make <i>tefilah </i>a central focus of his work in the first three. “The first,” he says, “was a pluralistic school and therefore it was easy to avoid <i>tefilah </i>… the whole community sort of … galvanized their combined efforts to make <i>tefilah </i>too hard to do, so we didn’t do it really. And the second one, it was an Orthodox-in-name-only community school in Australia where everything was lip service anyway … so it made sense for <i>tefilah </i>to be lip service too.” It was as the head of a religious high school in Jerusalem that he first began to ponder the role of <i>tefilah </i>in the school setting. There, the students were “questioning and challenging and demanding [from school worship services] something more meaningful than what they had encountered for nine years of elementary school … or in their home community.” The students’ perception of prayer was that it was “not something that spoke to them, not something … that was worth their time and effort … and after a month or two, I came to the increasing realization that they were bringing to the surface an issue that I had managed to keep suppressed in my own <i>tefilah </i>experience for 40 years. I said [to myself], ‘Wow! I’ve never done anything about the fact that <i>tefilah </i>means nothing to me.’”<br /><br />Nevertheless, it was not until he became the founding headmaster of Schechter Manhattan, an elementary school, that he saw the opportunity to design a prayer curriculum that would positively influence the spiritual lives of its students. His concern with elementary age students is predicated on his view (which he attributes to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowler" s_stages_of_faith_development="">James Fowler</a>) that faith development goes through a linear progression of stages, and that “if you don’t develop the particular positive qualities of a particular stage, and you skip over that stage, you will struggle to recover the lost ground of the missed opportunity. You’re supposed to have a phase of naïve awareness, appreciation and awe, miss out on that, pay the price forever after.” For Dr. Lorch, by the time students are in high school it is already too late for them to develop this kind of spiritual sensibility. “The way I like to think about is backward planning from the portrait of the ideal graduate. I spent over fifteen years in three different schools on three different continents receiving badly prepared high school freshmen. So I knew that the entering 9th grade student I wanted to produce was different.”<br /><br />Dr. Lorch is quick to identify <a href="http://www.gratz.edu/faculty/entry/dr.-saul-philip-wachs">Dr. Saul Wachs</a> as his primary influence for the design of the curriculum. “Everything I’ve done in <i>tefilah </i>is an adaptation of his approach. His was the big idea, mine has been just little tweaks of his big idea: You ask the kids provocative spiritual questions, and you engage with them in philosophical or quasi-philosophical discourse.” He refers to Dr. Wachs as a “visionary,” observing that “the work that he did was trailblazing” and unprecedented. He recalls reading Dr. Wachs’ dissertation, and being amazed by how little could have been derived from the literature review.<br /><br />Schechter Manhattan opened in 1996 with a single kindergarten class. At the outset, Dr. Lorch didn’t have clear goals for the prayer curriculum, but rather an impression of “what <i>tefilah </i>discourse would look like, sound like and feel like.” In contrast with other Jewish studies areas, “where we were just feeling around in the dark all the time, <i>tefilah </i>was the one place where we had a mostly illuminated path right from the first day.” Dr. Lorch describes the development of the <i>tefilah </i>curriculum as akin to reading or mathematics, where they had both a clear sense of the kind of pedagogy they wanted to employ and the content they wanted the students to encounter. “I had a sense of the importance of punctilious recitation of the text and of singing the <i>nusach</i>. I had a sense that kids need to have ingrained in them, imprinted on them, the pillars of <i>tefilah</i>, namely, <i>kabbalat ol malchut shamayim</i> [submission to God’s will] and <i>bakashah </i>[petition].” Dr. Lorch explains that in prayer “you remind yourself that you truly and deeply believe that you are God’s subject and you stand in a subservient relation to God, and nevertheless you have the power to put forward your personal and communal requests to God in a paradoxical and incomprehensible juxtaposition of those two ideas. Everything else is commentary.” To emphasize the centrality of these two “pillars” would necessitate teaching the prayers in a definite sequence, prioritizing teaching the shema and the middle section of the amidah. <br /><br />Dr. Lorch emphatically affirms that developing the curriculum was a collaborative and eclectic process that took a period of several years. “I didn’t know much about elementary education. I was supported all along the way by the teachers who were implementing it.” For example, during the first days of kindergarten, the prayer service consists solely of a single line of the <i>shema</i>. Shortly afterward, the students add the prayers of the <i>amidah</i>, one at a time. Over the course of their years in the school, they gradually add more prayers and flesh out the texts of the ones they already have. In kindergarten, there is one communal <i>siddur </i>created on giant pieces of posterboard, and beginning in 1st grade, each student has a looseleaf binder for a <i>siddur</i>. Dr. Lorch takes credit for none of these elements. “From a conversation with Sandra [the founding early childhood director] and the teachers that we decided a big chunk of text is not really appropriate [for young children] and to keep to one-liners as much as possible. I think that I probably imported the idea of the loose-leaf <i>siddur </i>from something I learned from Steve Brown in Ramah Poconos in the summer of ’68. Elisa [a classroom teacher] jumped in and became my thought-partner in a number of ways, in particular turning [the curriculum] into a balance of activity-based and discussion-based work.”<br /><br />A key component of the curriculum is a daily “<i>tefilah </i>question,” in which teachers guide the students to explore the meaning of the words they are saying. Dr. Lorch credits his familiarity and facility with classical Jewish texts as making him particularly well suited to the design of such questions. Yet, he sees these questions as akin to ones that might be asked in any text study involving close reading and deep inquiry. Therefore, even though the purpose of the curriculum is to engage the children in spiritual exploration, it is not predicated on the teacher being him or herself on a spiritual quest. Dr. Lorch notes that he has “come to realize that that is desirable, because if you can have that person functioning as a role model in addition being a teacher, it is preferable -- but it is not essential. The essential part is just good constructivist teaching skills and instincts. All the provocative questions are right there for them, so what works for teaching any other part of the curriculum works for this, as long as the teacher is prepared to expose herself or himself to contending with whatever the consequences of opening the question are.”<br /><br />To my surprise, despite his assertion that Schechter Manhattan has a transformative effect on the spiritual lives of its students, Dr. Lorch does not have any evidence about the long-term impact and he isn’t actually concerned with finding out. “I don’t know that 4 years later it remains a live, living and evolving part of them. I don’t worry about that My calling as a Jewish educator is to hand my students off to the next Jewish educational setting, in as great a shape as possible to take advantage of the best from what that setting has to offer. And if the next runner in the relay race maintains the lead from when I’ve handed off the baton, perfect. And if he trips and falls, he trips and falls. If he drops the baton, he drops the baton. If I were to try to influence it from here, I would be taking my eye off the ball here.” Nevertheless, Dr. Lorch identifies a “responsibility to communicate with parents and students my expectations that [the students] will continue after 8th grade in an appropriate Jewish educational setting and to facilitate creating those connections, those next steps to Jewish institutions.” He also affirms that such connections need not be a Jewish day school, citing as examples such organizations as <a href="http://www.jtsa.edu/Academics/Ivry_Prozdor_High_School.xml">Prozdor</a> [a supplementary Hebrew High School run by JTS], <a href="http://www.campramah.org/">Camp Ramah</a> or <a href="http://www.zamirfdn.org/index.php?p=11">HaZamir chorale</a>.”<br /><br />It is, in fact, precisely because Dr. Lorch believes his work has had little influence beyond his own institution and its graduates that he does not describe himself, the <i>tefilah </i>curriculum, or his school as “visionary.” He contrasts himself with <a href="http://deborahmeier.com/">Deborah Meier</a>, who he describes as shaping the transformation of the “American high school from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA">BenStein in Ferris Bueller</a> to learning to use your mind.” For him, vision is defined both by the “radical break from the current or previous reality and the scope of the impact. It is [both] having the idea that makes the difference, something the world needs, and being able to disseminate the idea, to see your way clear to translating the idea in a way that will capture the world by storm … I would say [<i>tefilah</i>] is an innovative curriculum, it is a groundbreaking, trail-blazing, pushing out the frontiers of our knowledge of the field … But I have done nothing, or next to nothing, to extend the reach of [the <i>tefilah </i>curriculum] beyond one little school.” While he would be delighted to see others implement this curriculum, he adds with a smile, “I’m not really built for the missionary role, proselytizing to the rest of the Jewish educational world … to see the error of their ways.”<br /><br />Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34150549.post-72205524722246489082013-10-29T13:58:00.002-04:002013-11-08T14:18:22.412-05:00Parshat Toldot and HalloweenI wrote this week's online Torah Commentary on <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/torah.php?torah_id=377" target="_blank">Parshat Toldot</a> for <a href="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/" target="_blank">Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York</a>.<br /><br />Here is the text in its entirety. Happy Halloween!<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td style="border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px;" valign="top" width="50%"><div style="padding-right: 27px;"><div class="subheadpurple" style="color: #8f064a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px;"><em>Translation:</em><br /><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; padding-bottom: 5px;"></div></div><div class="introTextDark" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: oblique; line-height: 20px;"><b>Genesis 27:22-24</b><br />(22) So Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered. “The voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau.” (23) He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; and so he blessed him. (24) He asked, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.”</div><br /><div class="subheadpurple" style="color: #8f064a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px;"><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; margin-top: 10px;">Excerpted from&nbsp;<em>The Torah: A Modern Commentary,</em>&nbsp;Revised Edition, editor W. Gunther Plaut (NY: URJ Press, 2005). Used by permission of URJ Press, www.urjbooksandmusic.com.</div></div></div></td><td valign="top" width="50%"><div style="padding-left: 24px;"><div class="subheadpurple" style="color: #8f064a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px;"><em>Original Text:</em><br /><div div="" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; padding-left: 10px;"></div><img align="right" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.emanuelnyc.org/media/torah/torah_377.jpg" /></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(145, 3, 74); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 2px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 15px;"><span class="subheadpurple" style="color: #8f064a; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px;"><em>Commentary</em></span></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" /><table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 25px; width: 90 px;"><tbody><tr><td><img align="right" alt="" height="110" src="http://admin.emanuelnyc.org/sps/var/images/image_md_45.jpg" style="margin-bottom: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" width="90" /></td></tr><tr align="right"><td><div align="left" style="margin-right: 5px;"><h3 style="color: #a0065c; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Saul Kaiserman,<br />Director of<br />Lifelong Learning</h3></div></td></tr></tbody></table><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;"><big>HERE IN NEW YORK CITY,</big></b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">&nbsp;it is impossible to not notice that it is Halloween this week. But, it should be noted that costumes and trickery are as ancient as the Torah. One of the most famous stories is in this week’s portion,&nbsp;</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">Tol’dot</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">.</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob. Nearly blind and in his dying days, Isaac intends to give his blessing to his favored son, Esau. But Jacob, the younger son, is his mother’s favorite, and with her help, Jacob disguises himself as Esau. He costumes himself as his hairy brother by putting goatskins on his arms and his neck. When Isaac reaches out for Jacob’s hands, he feels the goat hair and is deceived. The trick works! Jacob receives his father’s blessing in place of his brother.</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">This is just one of the many tales in the Bible in which people wear a disguise or conceal who they are in order to achieve their goals. In some stories, a disguise enables the wearer to engage in forbidden behavior. For example, after King Saul outlaws sorcery, he puts on a disguise so that he may consult a soothsayer. (I Samuel 28:8) At other times, a disguise provides a way to ascertain another’s true intentions, as when Joseph, in the attire of the governor of Egypt, takes care not to be recognized by his brothers. (Genesis 42:7) Still other times, the deceit arises out of a fear for safety, as when Abraham professes to the Egyptians that Sarah is his sister rather than his wife. (Genesis 12:12-13)</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">From the earliest passages of the Bible, in the story of Adam and Eve, clothing is associated with dishonesty. After disobeying God by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they recognize their nakedness, sew together fig leaves and hide themselves. (Genesis 3:7-8) It is a thin line between clothing and costume, between dressing up and deception.</span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">Biblical stories of deception often end badly, with negative consequences for those involved. Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden. When, at King Saul’s bidding, the soothsayer successfully raises the spirit of the prophet Samuel, the ghost foretells the king’s own death. The lies Abraham tells about Sarah result in a plague on the house of Pharaoh, that only end when Abraham admits who he really is. Esau is so infuriated by Jacob’s theft of the blessing that he vows to kill him; Jacob is forced to run for his life, never to see his mother again. Years later, his own children — in a well-known story — trick him into thinking that his most beloved son, Joseph, has been slain by wild animals.</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;">Jacob worries whether he will be discovered as a fraud but never is concerned whether his actions are right or wrong, or with Esau’s feelings. Jacob’s trick is successful, but he, and his family, live and die with the consequences of his lie. Let us be more careful than Jacob and think not only whether our disguises will be effective but also of whom we may hurt when we wear them.</span>Saul Kaisermanhttps://plus.google.com/118313003221163647152noreply@blogger.com0